The Umbrella Chronicles#3: ApocalypseRising FULL.V
by Mark 'Manix' Odell
Summary: The third chronicle of the Umbrella Chronicles - ENJOY! Leon and Claire have one last chance to beat Umbrella in the zombie infested town of Burkitt...it's now or never...
1. Default Chapter

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
LEON  
  
Seeking Asylum  
  
The corridor is very lonely. Has it always been like this - Or is it just a figment of my imagination? It's like walking through the inside of a chrome container, yet the walls don't reflect back.  
Being committed is not the most enjoyable of experiences as you could guess. Everything echoes. It did echo, sorry I'm speaking in the wrong tense.  
It was probably late evening when the Director of the Burkitt Mental Asylum decided that I was a deluded schizophrenic, even though I knew otherwise. I was perfectly sane. I still am.  
"You see Mr. Kennedy..." the fifty-something man with thinning grey hair atop a kindly old face that could have belonged to my old English teacher "...We have views here in the Burkitt Mental Asylum, and we have an especially strong view on cases like yours"  
I sighed, and said for the fiftieth time  
"I'm NOT insane"  
"Of COURSE you're not" the director, Malone I think his name was, had said with more than a little sarcasm permeating his voice "But we do tend to see many people who claim that the end of the world is nigh, who claim all kinds of things - What is it you ranted about...A mutant virus?"  
"Yes, the T-Virus" I was annoyed by his use and emphasis of the word 'rant'.  
"And...it turns people into zombies, yes?"  
"We've been through all this!" I snapped, I'd been through an extremely thorough interrogation disguised as a friendly chat conducted by his head attendant whose name was Horowitz.   
His questions had been more than slightly patronising, and were designed specifically to bang me up in the nuthouse - Which is precisely what had happened.   
"Mr. Kennedy - we have received assurance from our backers that you are acutely paranoid and deluded, which is how you got here in the first place"  
"These 'backers' of yours are Umbrella Incorporated, right?"  
The old man's face turned to steel.  
"We are not at liberty to release such information, but they are trained doctors and psychologists"  
I had sat there with the old guy, bound to a wheelchair for maybe fifteen minutes, the entire conversation being a repeat of pretty much the same phrase.  
You're MAD Kennedy...You're MAD...  
The office was bleak, and had been painted, almost mockingly, a shade of pink to try and cheer the patients up. Or was it there to cheer up the director? I didn't know.  
It was after this fifteen minute period that he'd finally lost his cool with me, and pressed the red button on his desk to call two attendants to lead me away.  
"Samson? Blissix? Please come in here and take Mr. Kennedy to his room - And be careful with him, he is prone to violent outbursts"  
I stared at him.  
Violent outbursts? Since when?   
I'd stood up before, angry at the interrogation, but I hadn't any intention of attacking anybody. Naturally, every single guard in the room jumped on me, grabbed a limb each and held me down as I loudly protested against their treatment of me.  
Then another guard had brought in his hypodermic syringe with that small cargo of unconsciousness, and I was out like a light. When I'd woken up, my clothes had been removed and I was wearing a hospital nightshirt, white shorts and a straitjacket. My arms were secured to me, and my feet were so cold I didn't want to make any moves anyway, but the staff at the asylum had decided, for whatever reason, to bind me to a wheelchair.  
They spoke to me like I was some kind of six-year-old invalid, they always did while I was there.  
The two attendants, Samson and Blissix walked into the room, and released me from the chair. They took my elbows, and practically dragged me down the corridor.  
I stepped forwards painfully, the floor was cold and my limp was acting up again. The floor was like walking on dry ice, it was uncomfortable, and neither Samson or Blissix seemed to give a damn.  
"Please, Mr. Kennedy..." one of them said "...Please don't slow up - It's not nice"  
"Not nice..." I shook my head in bemusement "...Who do you think I am, some kind of frigging toddler?"  
"Let's change the subject shall we?" I think it was Blissix who said that "Why don't you tell us about this...what is it, the B-Virus?"  
"The T-Virus" I said, sternly "A virus that can transform human beings into braindead zombies - The first symptoms are itching, complaints about your skin. Then your skin starts to disintegrate, and you feel unnaturally hungry...after that, there's no stopping it as your brain goes dead, apart from the basic motor senses - And you're a zombie"  
"A zombie?!" Samson (I think) said in mock surprise "Sounds pretty bad!"  
Blissix sniggered.  
They were holding me in that awkward position from which I couldn't see their faces, but I knew they were exchanging amused glances behind my head. They probably got hours of enjoyment, laughing at loonies who were committed all the time. That was what I was to them, just another nutjob.  
I suppose you're wondering how I got into this mess? It began two months into the new-year, Claire, Chris and myself were in the process of breaking into the New York Umbrella branch - but we were caught. There was no point in resisting, if you've got nine MP5's pointed at your body and your wife's with you? You're not exactly going to say 'No'. Umbrella had us under lock and key for a while, until we were mysteriously 'released'. Why I had no idea, until, in my apartment in New York I was captured by six Umbrella soldiers while I slept beside Claire.  
Our original HQ in London had been raided by the police from an 'anonymous' tip off (guess who from) and so we'd take the risky move of returning to my home in New York. We'd remained safe, however.   
Quite why Umbrella only took me was beyond me. Umbrella had decided what to do with me, playing with me as if I was some kind of baseball for them to catch and throw.  
Prison meant too much media attention, and releasing me would be too dangerous. So they chose to put me inside Burkitt Mental Hospital, in the town of Burkitt somewhere in Colorado. Familiar place, huh?  
To tell the truth, the place is nothing like Raccoon City. There's a mountain range right at the edge of the town - In fact, the mountains are almost part of the town. The asylum is somewhere in the middle of town, it's an enormous concrete monstrosity that looks like a location shoot for The House on Haunted Hill.  
From what I could see, the main building was surrounded by barbed wire and high security fences to prevent prisoners from getting out which made it quite a formidable fortress.  
The building was tall, gaunt and uncompromising - And it was here I was now imprisoned. One madman amongst many, supposedly.   
Samson and Blissix took me down the sterile corridor, and stopped me by a thick metal door, one of them stuck their keys in the lock, and after a click, I was pushed roughly into my 'room'.  
I gazed around as the door slammed behind me. It was of equal length, width and height. It was also thickly padded, with only a tiny window at the top of the room letting a little air in.  
I'd seen padded cells before, mostly in those horror movies set in lunatic asylums. I'd seen some pictures on Police training - but this was the first time I'd been prisoner in one.  
A room...for lunatics?  
I flew into a rage as the realisation hit me. They thought I was mad, thought I was insane!   
"I'M NOT INSANE!!" I screamed, kicking the padded walls with my bare feet, my arms still tightly bound by the straitjacket "I'M NOT CRAZY!!"  
I could hear them laugh, Samson and Blissix, their laughing echoing into and bouncing around my cell.  
"YOU DON'T GET IT, DO YOU?!" I yelled "YOU JUST DON'T GET IT!! THAT VIRUS IS OUT THERE - NOTHING CAN STOP IT!!"  
If anything, they laughed louder.  
I fell against the wall, and looked at the opposite wall in my despair. I slowly dragged down the wall, tears trickling down my face as I stared at the white padded wall opposite me. They wouldn't understand. They would never understand. The fact that I was miles from seeing my wife and two children again, not to mention my sister and friends just hit everything home.   
"No..." I whispered, bowing my head into my chest as I lay against the wall. My tears stained the fabric of my straitjacket as I sat there, my own mind in some kind of purgatory that was all my own.  
  
I woke up in the morning, I was lying in the middle of the soft floor, face staring up at the ceiling. How nice of them. I suddenly found that I could move my arms, and realised that they had removed my straitjacket.   
I staggered up to the grille.  
"Hey...you out there" I said to the attendant.  
"Mm?" came the gruff, monosyllabic reply from the man outside.  
"I want another room"  
"Do you now?" he said, sarcastically.  
"Yeah - I thought that you were supposed to be good to your prisoners and actually let them sleep properly once in a while" I sneered.  
I stepped back as the door suddenly swung open. He was a very heavily built man, clean shaven but with hair that was slicked back, with muscles like melons and a baton in his left hand.  
"Complaining, boy?" he grunted.  
"Yeah" I said, confidently "I want another room - Or is that tiny brain of yours too small to understand?"  
The man's right hand tightly curled into a fist.  
He suddenly brought his arm across with such force that I was taken completely by surprise, and within seconds I was on my knees.  
"Okay" he hissed "I've got a fun little game for us to play - It's called 'Count the blows'"  
He grabbed my neck with one hand, and put his foot on my hand. I winced, but tried not to show I was in pain, because that would just give the sadistic bastard more satisfaction.  
Suddenly, a sudden sharp pain thudded through my back and I clenched my teeth, trying not to scream.  
"I said the game's called count the blows!! So count the blows!! If you lose count up to twenty, then I start again!!" he bellowed.  
He struck my back again, this time with even more force.  
"ONE!" I cried.  
WHACK!  
"TWO!"   
The man smacked me again with his baton, the pain shooting through my body like an electric shock.  
"THREE!!" I cried out, I was in agony.  
WHACK!  
"FOUR!!"  
He struck me again, and again and again. I knew that if I couldn't keep count he'd probably break my back.  
"N-I MEAN EIGHT!!"  
"PARDON?!"  
"EIGHT, GODDAMMNIT, EIGHT!!!" I screamed  
I cried out with each blow, each cry of pain blurted out as I called out the numbers. By the time he reached fifteen, I was just about ready to pass out. I was in pain. More pain than I'd ever been.  
My life was saved by Samson bursting in, and saw my torturer beating me to the very fringes of death.  
"Neals, what the HELL are you doing?!" Samson grabbed Neal's hand as he tried to bring it down for the sixteenth time "Have you gone utterly crazy?!"  
Neals lowered his hand, and with a grunt, walked out.  
I started to cry, collapsing on the floor, my back felt like I'd fallen on it from a great height six or seven times over.  
Samson helped me up.   
"Whoa...you're in pretty bad shape, I'd better get you a doctor"  
He helped me up, and almost carried me out of the cell.  
I didn't, and couldn't, resist. My back felt red hot as I was half dragged through the corridor, and after a minute, Samson helped me into a small room and flung me forwards. I landed on a soft, comfortable bed, my face pressed into a pillow.  
"This is your room now" he instructed, sternly "I was just over to pick you up..."  
The rest of his speech was lost to me in my own, echoing dreamworld. I was weeping softly into the pillow. I felt worse than I had done in a very long time.  
I prayed for Claire. I desperately wanted to see her again, I wanted to see Sherry again. I was desperate...  
  
CLAIRE  
  
Over the Hills and far away  
  
The green, ex-army jeep that Chris owned bounced along the muddy track as Sherry and I sat in the back, staring blankly out of the window into the blurring green of the alpine trees as they shot by, blurred and distorted by the rain. The distance was marked by the gaunt mountain peaks, capped with snow.  
Leon had been missing for nearly three weeks now, and I missed him. We missed him. As I stared out into the distance, I wondered exactly what it was that Leon had been taken for. I hadn't parted from him in the entire two years we'd known each other. Before Leon, I had thought I was in love.  
His name was Steve. I met him on Rockfort Island more than a year ago - He was annoying at times, and came off as a smartass, but his character was deeper than ever I had expected - Which drew me, probably out of curiosity, to him. He died, and I cried. I'd never cried about anybody before. When I met Leon again, it was as if my life had a new meaning. A good meaning. Yes, I fell in love with him. I was magnetized to him in a way I could never have been to Steve. We got married, and I was proud to carry his children.  
Now he had been captured by Umbrella, and I felt fiercely angry that they'd even dared to take my husband away from me.  
We had been travelling for nearly four hours, and I had barely moved throughout the entire time. Sherry lay in my arms, her arms clasped to me, her face staring out through the rain-drenched window.  
  
We'd met a contact of Chris's down in Albuquerque, or at least somewhere in a small greasy diner on the outskirts.   
It had been a small diner, hardly anything special. That morning the diner had been patronised by three off-duty cops and a blind man with a white cane. The patron, Luigi, had been less than kind and courteous, grunting gruffly from behind a thick black moustache   
The man had been sitting quietly in the corner, in a long trench coat, staring at the wall. Chris announced our presence by coughing, politely, and the man looked up and smiled.  
"Ah. Chris, Claire...and..."  
"Sherry" Sherry said.  
"Of course, pardon me" he replied, and gestured for us all to sit.   
We drew back our chairs, and sat down on the padded chrome seats, which were far from comfortable.  
"So..." the young, intense man had said, leaning forwards "...I suppose you want me to tell you the plot?"  
"If you could" Chris replied, a little brusquely. Chris wasn't in the habit of trusting anybody these days, even contacts whom he kept in regular contact with were now treated with just a flicker of mistrust. Personally I couldn't blame him.   
The man gestured to one of the dog eared menus.  
"Do you want something to eat or drink? A bagel? Coffee?"  
"Stan" Chris snapped "Please cut to the chase"  
I did regret that bit though, I was starving after four hours.   
"Okay, okay, keep it cool!" Stan had said, holding his hands out in a gesture of surrender "Calm down..."  
"We haven't got anything to be calm about" Chris hissed "My sister's husband is missing"  
"I know where he is" Stan said, coolly "Leon Kennedy, isn't it?"  
"Yes" I suddenly said "Where is he?"   
I was a little overeager with that question, I was leaning forwards on my hands like I was threatening him, and he visibly flinched.  
"Ever heard of a town called Burkitt?"  
"Uh...Rings a bell"  
Stan wiped his finger along the smooth surface, smearing cold, spilled coffee into the table.  
"It's located somewhere in Colorado, to the north, on the area that borders the mountains"  
"And...?"  
Stan appeared to drift for a moment, his gaze drifted towards the windows off into the morning sky, before he snapped his head back to us.  
"He's been committed"  
Chris, Sherry and myself went rigid with shock.  
"He's...in a lunatic asylum?" I asked, shocked.  
"Unfortunately, yes" Stan replied sadly "It would take a superhuman effort to get him out under normal circumstances"  
I frowned at him.  
"What do you mean 'under normal circumstances'"  
He looked at us darkly.  
"Umbrella have something planned" he whispered "I don't know what exactly, but they've got something up their sleeves - Burkitt could become very unsafe soon"  
"I don't care" I stubbornly insisted "I want to save my husband"  
Stan looked at us. After a ten second silence, he nodded, softly.  
"You're determined, Ms. Redfield"  
"Yes" I said, clenching one of my fists in determination.  
"I respect that - A lot"   
He smiled, the sun glinted on a gold tooth.  
"What do you suggest?" Chris asked, leaning further forwards at the table.  
"Well, I suggest keeping a low profile - there aren't any Umbrella labs there, but they do have their main chemical plant there, so there's a substantial garrison of Umbrella guards"  
"Tell me..." I asked, suspiciously "Who funds the asylums upkeep and maintenance?"  
"Guess" Stan said, plainly.  
I closed my eyes for a moment.  
They would pay. Umbrella would definitely pay.  
  
The jeep crawled up and down slopes, and around tight bends where not even the most daring of stuntmen would drive around.  
Chris had chosen the most obscure route to Burkitt, he'd made pretty that was the case to avoid any officials on the main roads, so he'd taken what he called the 'scenic' route. This, roughly translated, meant that it was bumpy, dangerous and unsettling.  
A spray of mud slapped into the window, and I drew back out of my trance.   
  
The 4x4 slowed a little as Chris took it around the bend, and I stepped to the cab of the 4x4.  
"Hey" I said, nudging Chris "When will we get there?"  
He looked up at me, his face tired and his eyes a little bleary.  
"Mm? Oh...about an hour I reckon - An hour until we get onto the main ring-road that goes around Burkitt"  
"You sure you know where you're going?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.  
"Providing the road-signs don't lie to me, then we should be on track"  
I nodded, and stepped back into the gloomy back seats.   
I flopped down into the backseats, Sherry snuggling up to me.   
"Will we find him?" she asked, softly.  
"Of course" I said, soothingly.  
The seat was soft, but the car shook slightly as we hit bumps in the road.  
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chris looking back a little, adjusting the angle of the rear view mirror slightly.   
"Claire...I don't know if you can see this too, but could you look out of the back and tell me if there's a black armoured car following us"  
I peered out of the rain spattered back window. Indeed, there was a sleek black armoured car following us at a steady pace.  
"Is it real?" Chris asked.  
"It's real" I said "It's very, very real"  
I could hear the engine sound change slightly as Chris increased the throttle, and as I looked out the car accelerated to keep up.  
Wiping away some of the steam from the window, I could now see that the armoured car - surprise, surprise - had the Umbrella logo stencilled on it.   
"It's from Umbrella" I said, turning to Chris in the driver's seat.  
"Quelle-goddamn-surprise" he muttered, and put his foot down.  
The 4x4 screamed onwards down the road, pursued by the rapidly accelerating Umbrella vehicle. I felt the 4x4 suddenly lurch to one side as Chris brought the 4x4 in a screeching 90 degree turn around a hairpin bend that sent me and Sherry falling to the other side of the vehicle.   
"Claire!" Chris yelled "Could you give me a hand with this?!"  
"What do you want me to do?!" I replied.  
"Uh..."   
He thumbed back to me.  
"There's an AK-47 underneath the second locker, get it out"  
I nodded, and rummaged in one of the lockers - and yes, inside was the black metal form of an AK-47.   
"Any spare clips?"  
"Try the locker beside it"  
I flung open another of the dented army surplus lockers, inside were four clips. Just about enough.   
"SHERRY!" I cried "Stay to the side!!"   
She nodded, and lay face first on one of the seats at the side, face down, not daring to move.   
I could feel the pace of my heart begin to pick up as I twisted the handles on the rear doors and then kicked them open. As they swung to the sides, I was blasted with cool damp air and a slight spray of mud hit my boots.  
I raised the rifle, and pulled the trigger.  
The rifle bucked into my shoulder as I fired the weapon, fire sprouted from its barrel as the car lurched in the road, trying to avoid my fire.  
Bullet holes suddenly appeared in the hood of the approaching car, and as if it was infectious the holes spread all the way up the car, spitting holes in the windshield.  
I ceased fire for a moment, in the hope that the driver had lost control. But the car stayed still, and I realised that I had missed the driver.  
"Chris!! He's still coming!"  
Suddenly, a black-clad soldier leaned out of the car with what looked like an MP5, and I leapt for cover at the side of the car as bullets sprayed in our direction, shredding the edge of the canopy.  
When he stopped, I presumed he was out so I turned back and fired. Many hours spent practising with Chris on the firing range had now come to good use, as four of my bullets thudded into our attacker, scarlet fountains erupting from his body as he stiffened with the impact, and fell out of the car door, rolling like a sack of limp meat as he rolled through the mud.  
I exhaled.  
Good shot, but the car was still following.  
"You hit him?!" Chris called.  
"Yeah, but only the guy with the gun - The driver's OK!"  
"Can you hit him?"  
"Think so" I raised the gun to shoot again, when Chris suddenly called  
"Waitasec....Oh godamnit! There's another guy in front of us!"  
I ran to the front, only to see that he was telling the truth. Another one of the cars had pulled out from a fork in the road, and was now blocking us in. A rattle of gunfire from the front car confirmed that they were trying to lay down covering fire, and we both ducked as some bullets thudded into the right hand side of the screen.   
We looked at each other.  
"How can get them like this?" I asked.  
"We've got to try and kill two birds with one stone..." Chris mused, and after a few seconds, turned to me grinning.   
"Okay, hold on tight, I've got an idea"  
I was suspicious as to how well Chris's ideas functioned, but I gripped onto the seat and held myself hard to the seat, looking out of the back to see exactly what Chris had planned.  
Chris moved the car slightly to the left so that the car was no longer directly behind him, and suddenly hit the brakes.   
There was a scream from the protesting handbrake system, and the landscape suddenly stopped moving, as the vehicle behind us shot forwards, the baffled driver unable to stop before he thundered into the front vehicle.   
There was a sickening metallic crash as the two vehicles collided, metal bending and screeching as Chris veered off to the left of the two crashed vehicles. As we shot past, a stray spark ignited at least one of the car's petrol engines, and I just had time to close the back doors before a pretty glowing mushroom of fire thumped up into the sky, lifting the carcass of one of the vehicles high into the sky, before it crashed down on its counterpart.  
I was glad I had never heard the driver's screams.  
Chris sighed, and slowed the car slightly.  
"Whew...that was a close one"  
"Yeah...But I think that friend of yours was right, we have got to keep a low profile in Burkitt - It's a good bet Umbrella know that that's where we're going" I replied.  
I flopped down in the seat, looking at Sherry, who looked at me and let off a slight smile.  
I smiled back, not broadly but just in an encouraging way.  
So our journey continued.  
  
It was an hour before we finally came off the muddy road onto a proper tarmac highway, which relieved us no end, as the endlessly inconstant road surface finally became smooth. The road to Burkitt was practically deserted, although there were nine or ten crashed cars around.  
"This is not good..." I muttered as I saw the burned out carcasses of the cars lying around in the lanes of the highway.  
"No kidding" Chris remarked.  
I looked out of the front windscreen, and saw a large barrier, created out of police fences and two or three cars apart from the centre section, which was manned by three cops.  
They were waving us to stop.  
"Still humans around" Chris said, nodding at me "At least that's something"  
"Doesn't explain the barrier though" I pointed out.  
Chris slowed down at the barricade, and a slender, thirty-something man swaggered towards us in that condescending way most patrolmen adopted. For some bizarre reason he was also wearing shades. Chris wound down the window, and adopted an Oscar-worthy performance as an unsuspecting country bumpkin.   
"Something wrong officers?" Chris asked, casually.  
"I'm afraid you aren't allowed within this blockade" the cop said with a thick New England twang.   
"And why is that?" Chris asked in exactly the same tone of voice.  
"Civil problems" he replied spitting into the tarmac.  
"Define 'Civil problems?' Are we talking occasional muggings or the LA Riots?"  
"Somewhere in the middle"  
The cop then shrugged, leaning against the car. I rolled my eyes, unresponsive cops were the last thing we needed.   
"You sure we can't come in?" Chris asked, innocently.  
"I'm sorry sir" the man said, chewing on what was presumably gum "But Burkitt is currently suffering from some civil disturbances, and the police are having to check those coming in to the city - Do you have a pass?"  
"Uh...no..."   
"Then I cannot let you in, sorry sir"  
Chris sighed, glared at the cop, and deliberately wound the window up quickly, making the man jerk back in surprise as the glass nearly crushed his hand.  
Chris reversed the 4x4.  
"How do we get in?" I asked.  
Chris grinned. I'd seen that look before. It generally belonged to those about to attempt acts of insanity. It was the look of stuntmen, the look of those kinds of people who yelled 'C'MON!!' while standing in the middle of some train-tracks as the express from St. Louis hammered towards them at full speed.  
"Oh no" I said, smiling a little as Chris reversed the car back about two hundred metres. He revved the engine "You're joking"  
"Hold tight" he said evilly, as I buckled up in the front seat (which I had moved into) and I turned to Sherry.  
"Sherry?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Buckle up"  
She nodded, and sat down, clicking in the seat belt.  
I looked forwards, towards the wooden blockade, and then to Chris.  
"You sure this is going to work?" I asked.  
"I don't know" he said, shrugging "But that'll be the fun part"  
I glared at him.  
"We've got a thirteen year old girl in the back Chris - You had better be right about this"  
Chris revved the engine again, and reversed a little further back.  
"Ready?"  
"Ready!" Sherry and I said in unison.  
Chris slammed his foot down on the accelerator, and with a screeching of tyres, the 4x4 took off down the deserted section of road.  
I looked down at the speedometer, and saw the needle climb rapidly.  
Thirty miles per hour...forty...fifty...   
Fifty metres from the blockade, the wall of shouting policemen stopped shouting and waving, and when they realised we weren't going to stop, they scattered.  
We hit the barricade, which, after being hit by a 4x4 travelling slightly in excess of sixty-five miles per hour stood absolutely no chance of survival.  
The barricade snapped, pieces of splintering wood bouncing off the canopy as we burst through the protective line, other pieces sliding under the wheels as we shook off the last excesses of the barrier, and there was nothing but open road.  
Chris whooped with delight, and I turned to him, smiling but shaking my head.  
"You're an absolute lunatic, Chris"  
"Thank you, I pride myself on that" he said, grinning.  
We drove on, Chris whistling loudly, and triumphantly.  
We were finally hitting the outskirts of the town, the sign loomed up at us through the rain.  
WELCOME TO BURKITT  
Population: 90,002  
  
Lights appeared in the distance, and as we drove in, we became aware of the city outskirts - Derelict houses, a café, a car park with six or seven cars in it - and thank god, some people walking around. We could tell they weren't zombies, they walked strongly, hands in pockets and disappeared into the glowing café, which was a hive of activity.  
"Let's pull over" I said "I'm seriously hungry - I can't rescue Leon on an empty stomach"  
"Okay" Chris shrugged "I'm a little hungry myself, let's grab a bite"   
Chris pulled the car over, and stopped it just outside. Since nobody appeared to be paying any attention to the parking laws at the moment, Chris parked at an angle, and click on the brake.  
We climbed out into the rain, which was falling quite softly at the moment, and with Sherry at my side and Chris leading the way, we stepped into the amber light of the café.  
Actually, it was more of a diner - It had seven men sitting down, drinking coffee surreptitiously and a young barmaid with ginger hair held in a tight ponytail serving them their cups.  
Despite how inconspicuous we were trying to be, people from out of town were bound to draw some kind of attention no matter how much they were trying to prevent it.  
So a small group of eyes watched us carefully as we walked up to the bar, where the barman cleaned the bar, or to be more accurate spread the spilled drink more evenly across the surface.  
I tried not to touch the bar as the barman walked up to us.  
"Whaddya want?" he asked, gruffly.  
"Uh..." Chris turned to us.   
"A bagel" I said.  
"Uh, me too" Sherry said, softly.  
"And I guess I'll have a bagel too" Chris said "And that's two coffees and..."  
"A hot chocolate" Sherry put in.  
The man grunted again, and went behind the bar to arrange our order.  
I gazed around the room. It looked like one of those '1950's' theme places, commemorative plates hung on the walls celebrating Elvis's first hit record, and a plate that celebrated a World Series victory for the Yankees.   
There was an emphasis on chrome, which lined nearly every surface.   
We collected our food and drink and sat down not far from the other table, starting to eat and drink silently.  
As I looked out of the corner of my eye, I could see one of the men whisper, and then stand up. He walked over to us, and sat down with us.  
"You from outta town?" he asked.  
"Yeah" Chris said "We're here to meet a relative"  
The Redfield talent for spontaneous lying had run through the family for a very long time.   
"Well, I can see you ain't troublemakers, so I'll give you a little advice..."  
He waggled his finger.  
"Obey the curfew - Staying off the streets at night is advisable, it's become real dangerous lately"  
I looked at him.  
"Dangerous?"  
"Yeah, we been finding people with their throats torn out in back-alleys - Some rumour about an illness knocking around in Colorado got everybody hoppin', and some guy decided to bring in the armed police"  
"What are they doing here?" Chris asked.  
"They patrol the streets every night - Some people still go out, but anybody who does? Never heard of again"  
The man was absolutely serious, not a single note of mockery or humour hinted his voice.  
"Thanks" Chris said "We'll keep that in mind"  
"And if I was you, I'd buy a gun - People say they been seeing creatures all over the place lately. And LEAVE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE" he emphasised his last sentence.  
He then stood up, not waiting for a response, and then sat down with his friends again.  
Chris, Sherry and I exchanged glances.  
"A mystery illness" Chris whispered "I wonder what that could be" he added, sarcastically.   
"Seems like hell's just about ready to be unleashed" I muttered, peering down into my black coffee.  
  
Bring on the Night  
  
We left about ten minutes later, and climbed back into the car. As soon as the door slammed, Chris spoke.  
"Umbrella are already here. If Leon is banged up in the asylum as Stan says, then we've got one hell of a problem on our hands"  
"Let's just hope he isn't infected" I replied, crossing my fingers.  
Chris threw the car into gear, and accelerated off down the road. Buildings became denser, and after a while we came to a roundabout that signified the beginning of the town proper.  
There was something oddly quiet about the town. There was the sound of vehicles driving, and there were lit signs with glowing windows - but the streets were nearly deserted.  
Chris brought the 4x4 to a stop, and we cautiously climbed out. Chris went to the back of the 4x4, and pulled out his shotgun, throwing another to me on a strap. I caught it, and slung it around my shoulder. I had my semi-automatic pistols in my belt, so I wasn't worried about that. I also had the reassuring weight of Leon's magnum. I took it out, admiring its shining surface, and as if it was Leon itself, I kissed its barrel.  
I had six clips for my semi-automatics, and I pulled on my jacket over my head to avoid suspicious looks.  
"Okay" Chris said "We need a base of some kind - This is too exposed out here"  
"Right" I said "Any suggestions?"  
We stood silently for a few seconds on the concrete sidewalk. It was a cool afternoon, just edging into the evening period. Darkness was starting to filter down onto us, and lights were springing up in odd places down the road.  
Bring on the night.   
"What about a hotel?" Sherry piped up.  
Chris nodded.  
"Good idea. Seems like the virus isn't spreading too quickly at the moment, so providing we avoid using the local water supply and keep away from most people, we should be fine. I don't think the T-Virus has an airborne strain from what I've researched, so we're okay there"  
"Do you know of any hotels around here?"   
Chris shook his head.  
"No. Never been here before"  
I looked around.  
"Across the road" I pointed at a large sign on a large brick building that read 'HOTEL PARADIS'. It was lit up in red neon, which, while being tacky admittedly, was at least a place to stay.  
"Let's go" Chris said, concealing his shotgun beneath his jacket.  
  
The lobby of Hotel Paradis was as we expected it to be - Nearly everything was imitation gold, and yes- the carpet was red.   
We walked through, the hallway almost empty, apart from a man sitting at a small table in the corner, face bowed down towards the table. Probably asleep, I thought, as we walked down towards the reception desk.   
To any observer, we would look like a waylaid family trying to find a place to stay for the night. This was fine with us, and while being only partially true, it was hardly our obligation to tell the truth to the locals who didn't care about what we had to say about Umbrella.  
Chris stepped cautiously up to the counter, to the receptionist, who sat, half asleep at the table. He was sweating, and when Chris coughed politely to wake him up, he jolted into consciousness.   
We didn't like the texture of his face either. His skin had acquired a waxy sheen to it, and he was looking slightly pale.   
He smiled softly, and sat up, scratching his body profusely.  
"Uh...hi, this is the Hotel Paradis...how may we help you?"  
"You okay?" I asked.  
"I'm fine" he replied "Just a touch of the flu, nothing more"  
"What about your skin?" Chris asked.  
"Just a little eczema"  
'A little' was an understatement. He looked as if he'd been scratching so hard that he'd practically dug into his skin. As he scratched his hand, I did notice that it had blistered quite badly. A chill froze my gut. I knew what this meant.  
The poor guy hadn't the faintest idea what awaited him.  
"So...Can we get a room?"  
"Sure! Any specifications?"  
"Just a room with enough beds for...say four people"  
We had to account for Leon when the time came.   
He sounded cheerful enough, if a little hoarse, and he checked the register. His eyes scanned the pages for a moment, before he looked up, smiling.  
"Okay, room 50 on the fourth floor is free - Will that do?"   
"Fine, fine, fine" Chris waved his hands, and then removed his wallet "How much is that?"  
"How many nights are you planning to stay here?"  
"Hopefully just the one"  
"Got some problems in town?" the man asked, casually.  
"Uh...no..."  
"Well, we have...I'm going to leave town as soon as possible" the man remarked, throwing us the key, which Chris caught in his gloved hand.  
"How much is that?" Chris repeated his question.  
"$80"  
Chris winced at the price, but handed over the money - in cash of course - anyway.  
"Have a pleasant day" he smiled.  
We thanked him, before going to the elevator, pushing the button for floor four, and the doors sighed closed.  
I turned to look at Chris.  
"Waxy skin, sweating, flu...Do you think-?"  
"Uh-huh" Chris nodded.  
"Poor guy" I murmured "Do you think we'll have to...you know..."  
"What, kill him?" Chris said "At some point we may have to"  
I sighed, nodding.  
When the doors pinged open, we walked down the empty corridor, and located Room 50.  
Chris inserted the key into the lock, and pushed the door open. The room was fairly cool, even though the windows were closed. There was a double bed, and a sofa, which I presumed folded out into another double bed.  
The room's colour scheme was sickly, a horrible shade of yellow and red, but there was an ensuite bathroom and one or two cupboards, plus a TV.  
"Not too bad" Chris leapt onto a bed like a child, and bounced on it slightly "Pretty soft too. Not bad at all"  
Sherry fell on the bed, exhausted. I rolled my eyes.  
"Looks like I get the sofa"  
I unfurled the bed, and flopped onto it.  
"Let's get a couple of hours worth of shut eye" Chris said, lying back on a pillow "It'll be worth it - we got a long night ahead"  
"Good idea" Sherry mumbled, eyes already closed.  
"Just...a couple of hours" I said.  
"Fine" Chris said, closing his eyes.  
Soon, I closed my own. I wasn't fabulously tired, but I decided to get as much sleep as I could in the meantime.  
I could feel the world turn black around me as I fell into a troubled sleep, my dreams filled with images of Leon, smiling at me.  
I also thought of my children - Who were currently in Rebecca's care. I wasn't doubting her skills, but there was something about her that got on my nerves after a while. Apart from that, she was friendly and eager, and she'd been delighted to look after Steve and Ada. Barry said he'd keep a close eye on the house they were staying in. So that was okay. But Leon? I didn't know how he was feeling.   
I will rescue you, I promised him, if it's the last thing I do.  
  
I woke up to a bloodcurdling scream that tore through the air like a knife. Within seconds I was wide awake, sitting bolt upright. I rubbed my eyes, and looked at the wall clock.  
11:30pm  
Four hours? Not bad. But my attention was with the scream from downstairs. Chris was waking up, as was Sherry. As I ran to the window, I stared out in disbelief at the scene that confronted me.  
The walls were flickering with red and blue light, and as I stared down below, I saw three police cars and six cops - Live ones, I mean - pointing assorted weapons at...I froze.  
About thirty zombies were lurching down the road towards the screaming men, who opened fire.  
"What's that?!" Chris asked.  
"That's what's giving me the signal to get to the asylum"  
I grabbed my shotgun, which I had discarded temporarily, and slung it over my shoulder.  
I made for the door, but Chris stepped in my way.  
"Waitasec...What makes you think you're going by yourself?"  
"If you come there won't be anybody to protect Sherry" I pointed out.  
"Why doesn't she come too?"  
I gave him a cold look   
"Oh, great idea...Take Sherry into a building full of zombies and violent lunatics? Smart move"  
Chris sagged, unable to think of an argument.  
"How can you go by yourself?!" Sherry asked, half angry, half despairing.  
"I've got to go by myself" I said, calmly.  
"I want to come with you!!"  
"It's too dangerous, Sherry!"  
"Angel Island was dangerous, and I still went with you then, Finzustown was dangerous, and I still went with you then" she pointed out.  
"Yes, but this is...something I really feel I want to do alone...It's something I have to do, do you understand?"  
She looked into my eyes, and I could see that she did.  
"Will...you be back?"  
I smiled   
"You won't even have time to miss me" I said, giving her a kiss on the forehead.  
"Good luck" Chris said, giving me a hug "You got enough ammo?"  
"I've got sixty odd rounds for the shotgun in these pouches" I indicated the pouches "I'm carrying six clips for my semi-automatics and I've got Leon's magnum with four clips"  
He nodded.  
"That should see you through, providing there's no tyrants or anything" he said, letting off a sly grin and patted me on the shoulder.  
"I'll be back in a few hours" I said, smiling - And I stepped outside, closing the door behind me.  
For a moment I stood there, eyes closed, concentrating on my breathing. My heart was pounding, because I knew that the task ahead was not going to be easy. Far from it.  
I WILL rescue Leon, I WILL rescue Leon, I thought.  
I walked down the corridor towards the lift. I pressed the lift call button, and waited as it hummed up towards me.  
I pulled out my semi-automatics, and waited for the doors to slide open. As if I knew exactly what was coming, I stepped back. Out of the elevator lurched a zombie, disintegrating greyish skin and blood dripping from its decaying mouth, filled with yellowish teeth. White eyes stared at me in a bloodlust, which I knew would never be sated until I was on the ground and he was eating my guts.   
Out of instinct, I pulled both the triggers, and four bullets tore into its skull, two blasting its eye and some of the brain behind it to a pulp, the other two tearing through its skull as if it was a knife going through a balloon, bloody matter spraying against the lift doors.   
The moaning zombie keeled over onto its knees, and then flopped over onto its front. I stepped over its body, but it wasn't quite dead, and it tried to grab my boot to get a mouthful out of my ankle.  
"Get off me!" I said, annoyed, and stomped down on its skull as hard as I could. My boot went straight through its paper thin skull, a horrible squishing and crunching signifying the destruction of its head.  
I walked into the elevator, wiping my boot on the carpet of the lift. I did have morals, but at the moment, nothing mattered apart from Leon.   
I stabbed the ground floor button. It took a matter of moments for the lift to reach the ground floor, and when the doors opened, I stepped out into the reception area, ready for the worst. I stepped up to the counter, watching the receptionist asleep on the desk.  
I holstered my pistols, and withdrew the Remington 120 shotgun, waiting...  
With a hoarse moan, the receptionist looked up at me. White eyeballs studied my face, and with more than a little pity, I pointed the barrel of the weapon at the moaning zombie's head and I said 'Sorry' before unloading the weapon into his head. The shot blasted straight through the receptionist-zombie's head, and it flopped back in its chair, its body twitching.  
At least that had killed it.   
As I turned, I nearly shrieked when I saw four more zombies lurching towards me, one of them being the man we'd seen at the table as we'd arrived.  
I unloaded three shots in rapid succession, the first blew a bloody hole in the first's chest, the second shot obliterated the face of the first, the shot blasting straight through its head into the throat of another moaning zombie, which tore its head from its body in a single, bloody movement.  
I tried not to breathe in the smell as I stepped over their bodies, and hurried towards the exit. I pushed open the doors, and I was aware of the rain. There was little in the way of wind, but there was rain - Not tremendously heavy, but it was doing far more than spitting.  
I stepped onto the wet road, looking around for a car I could use.  
"FIRE!! FIRE!!" screamed one of the policemen, as they fought a losing battle against the horde of zombies.  
I had to close my eyes as screams of pain filled the air, punctuated by the tearing of flesh and the moaning of zombies. I turned away, unable to carry on watching what was being done to the men.  
I looked up at the sky - and I saw it.  
The asylum, a huge concrete monstrosity loomed over the entire city. It had to be, no other building I had ever seen looked like that. The sky rumbled, as if it had indigestion - and then a bolt of lightning illuminated the highest tower, and the word 'Mad Scientists castle' filled my mind for just a moment.  
At least I knew where it was now.  
I looked around for a car. Yes, there was one with the door open, and...I leaned inside...Yes, the keys were in the ignition. The driver had obviously left in a hurry. I leapt in, and slammed the door.  
I suddenly felt a pang of guilt, at having left the cops to their fate - But then again, they were dead men before I'd even stepped outside. Even if I had done anything they wouldn't have survived.   
I prayed that they were dead before the T-Virus had a chance to kick in, and then started the engine.  
I reversed the car a little, and then brought it out into the street before really putting the pedal to the metal. As I hammered down the road, walking dead littering the streets, I never let the asylum out of my sight.  
I gritted my teeth.  
I'm coming Leon. I'm coming.  
  
END OF PART ONE  
Part two coming soon!!   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. PART 2

  
CLAIRE  
  
Chilled to the bone  
  
I stood looking up at the huge architectural miscarriage that was the Burkitt Mental Asylum. It looked like somebody had taken a few concrete blocks and had taken a jackhammer to them and put windows in as an afterthought.  
As I stared up into the pouring rain, I could see the peak of the highest building, and at the electricity cables that ran from other parts of the city to power the building, presumably. The sign above the main entrance, which was a gate with a small security hut, read 'BURKITT MENTAL ASYLUM' - So at least my intuition had been correct.  
I wiped some hair off my brow, and slowly walked across the tarmac road in front, my boots making faint splashing noises in the puddles that were spotted around the main entrance, like a moat being used as a method of defence against intruders.  
I ran and ducked silently into the shadow beneath the window of the security hut. Hopefully the night watchman hadn't seen me. I was surprised to see the lack of guards patrolling. Were they all zombies already?  
I couldn't hear the night watchman saying or doing anything. Since I was crouched, I gently levered myself up just that little bit higher to the window.  
The guard stood there, his back to me. He was wearing a black jacket and the cap that belonged to most night watchmen...I was surprised he hadn't heard me running through the puddles.  
Then, as I watched, he turned slightly to the left, as if he'd seen something to his immediate left. I then saw why he probably hadn't heard me, and it was only the knowledge that I had to be silent that prevented me from shrieking.  
His face had partially disintegrated, his skin was practically sliding off his flesh, and large gashes were clearly visible in his cheek and temple. His mouth looked as if somebody had been at it with a razor sharp mincer, most of his teeth were clearly visible - even through the holes in his cheeks.   
I could only see one of his eyes, but it had that unmistakeable cloudy look of all zombies.  
Should I kill him, at least 'him' was the term I was using for this zombie, or should I take advantage of the fact that he can't see me and I should just sneak on by.   
I chose the latter, and crawled across the damp ground to the fence. Damn, I'd have to open the gate to get through...and in order to open the gate I had to press the security switch in the security hut- DAMN! It had made things twice as complicated.  
I considered climbing over the fence, but since I didn't have any wire cutters that wasn't an option. What a good start Claire, I thought, good start.   
Setting off the alarm was also a risk, and there was a high chance of there still being humans inside to hear the alarm go off - But they'd probably be occupied with any zombies inside, so I decided to take the risk of smashing the window out. I stood up, and using the butt of the rifle, I slammed it into the glass. The window cracked slightly. The zombie slowly turned around to look at me. I hit it again, the glass cracked again. I gathered up all of my strength, and whacked it once again.  
There was a crack as a few shards of glass fell away, and as I brought back the shotgun for a final hit, the zombie lurched towards the screen. The butt struck the glass for the final time, and the window imploded, forcing shards of glass deep into the zombie's face, and such was the force I hit the window with, the butt of the gun smacked the zombie's face, smashing part of the skull.  
I drew back the gun, and gently dipped the bloodied end of the rifle into a puddle, wiping it with a damp newspaper stuck to the wall. The zombie wasn't quite dead, but it hadn't far to go. I pulled the trigger only once, and the bullet blasted into its skull directly between the eyes. It gasped once, and then fell back.  
I breathed, and climbed in through the shattered window. Obviously the alarm had been disconnected or something.   
Inside, I searched the desk. There were some papers, a dirty magazine, a diary and, underneath a few candy bar wrappers, was a red button.  
They couldn't make it any easier for me, I thought, punching the button. No codes, no security cards - A big red button. I wondered who funded their security systems, as I began to climb out of the window - before I turned back to the door, set into the wall.  
I suddenly felt very, very stupid.  
Then, I realised there was no reason to feel stupid as I realised the door had three or four planks sealing it to the wall. No matter how hard I tried, very little would open that door, unless I blew it open with my shotgun - Which was a waste of ammo, so why not stroll in through the front gates?   
The gates had swung open by this point, so I walked straight through. I had dropped the stealth element for now, there was nobody to hide from really. I was walking across the park towards the main doors, when I heard a moan. More than that, I heard a chorus of moans.  
I turned, to see four zombies lurching in through the gates.  
Then, I heard more moans from my left and right, and I spun my head from left to right as I saw four or five more approaching from both my left and right.   
I ran for the doors, and as I did so, I heard a low growl. I turned my head as I ran, and a vaguely canine shape hared across the ground, in hot pursuit. I was spurred on faster than ever, and I could feel my heartbeat pick up once again as I knew that there was a flesh-hungry dog chasing me. I wasn't horrendously worried about the zombies, they were slow and unwieldy - But the dogs were a different story. The dogs were faster, tougher and more difficult to kill, yet they retained the same bloodthirsty instinct that all T-Virus carriers had.  
I ran to the doors, which were supposedly automatic - No, they were locked. I was beginning to panic, sweat was beginning to run down my face onto the rest of my body and I could hear the dog ever nearer, ever faster. I was fighting panic when the dog growled loudly, and leapt as I turned and ducked. As I ducked, the creature sailed directly over my head into the glass of the automatic door - Which cracked into a spiderweb as the creature hit it, bouncing off, blood squirting from various parts of its body as it fell on the floor. I seized the opportunity. I pulled out one of my semi-automatics, and fired a shot at the spiderweb of broken glass, which shattered instantly. I jumped through the whole, and into the main lobby. But the creature wasn't dead yet, I turned to see it get up again, and it ran across the black and white tiled floor, growling as it prepared to jump at me.   
But this time I was ready.  
I had my Remington loaded, and as it leapt at me, I fired a single shot directly into its body. The shot blasted into its chest, blasting off a few of its ribs and effectively pureeing its guts, which spilled out onto the floor as the creature let out a high pitched yelp as it collapsed to the floor, twitching. Then I heard the moaning zombies lurching towards the door, and I knew I had to act fast.  
  
  
I ran behind the receptionist's desk, ignoring the plaintive moans of the zombies as they lurched ever nearer, and instead focused myself on the receptionist's register. The pages were slightly crinkled, and I could see the brown stains where she had obviously spilled some coffee but had mopped it up, probably not even bothering to mention the incident to anybody.  
It was, thank god, in alphabetical order, so I flicked through the pages until I found 'K'  
K...Kane...Kareen...Kennedy!  
There were three Kennedy's, an Iain, a Jack...and a Leon.  
I tapped his name, and drew my finger across the page to his room number. Let's see...East Wing, Room 30.   
I heard the crunch of broken glass as the zombies lurched in through the doorway, and realised that I would absolutely have to move.  
I made a mental note of the wing and room, and checked under the counter for anything else of interest.  
No...A bottle of soda, some candy wrappers, cup of cold coffee...waitasec, there were some keys!  
I checked the labels attached to them.  
West wing, north wing, east wing...I took them all and bundled them into my pocket. You never know when you'll need a key or two.   
The zombies were getting closer, so I ran to the back of the lobby, where there were three locked double-glazed doors.  
I ran immediately over to the door labelled EAST WING, and inserted the key into the lock. I jerked it furiously, and pushed it open  
Jumping inside, I slammed the door behind me with a clang. Staring ahead of me, I was suddenly aware of the cold.   
I shivered, and I rubbed my arms, looking around the dim corridor. The windows along the side had been smashed, large gaping, jagged holes letting in an icy cold breeze that had sprung up. I walked slowly in the faint bluish light of the moon, glass shards crunching beneath my feet. Anything could happen, I thought, anything at all. There were several, fairly ordinary looking doors lining the corridor. I tried a few of the doors. All of them were unlocked, and all of them contained janitorial tools or some equipment.  
I turned to the left at the joint of the L-shaped corridor, and whipping out my two semi-automatics in a defensive stance. Nothing. I could hear the sounds of a man talking on the floor above.   
Could it be...I tried not to get my hopes up, but I couldn't help running down the corridor towards the door that would give me entry to the East Wing. As I reached the door, I suddenly felt something wet smack into my head.  
Out of instinct and pure irritation, I turned my head upwards...and nearly had a stroke.  
The hissing licker clung to the ceiling in much the same way one of the vile creatures had in Raccoon City. I HATED lickers. I leapt backwards, the tongue of the creature whipping out at me, at which I fired both of my weapons. Soon, the creature lay dead on the ground in a pool of blood, letting off one of its trademark death squeals as it died.  
I looked onwards. In here somewhere, was Leon.  
I promised myself that I wouldn't stop until I had found him.  
  
LEON  
  
The nuthouse is no more  
  
I lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling. It was a hobby I had taken up quite a lot lately, since I had little else to do. I knew this though - In the five days I had been incarcerated, something had gone very, very wrong.  
It was probably the third day I began to get hints. The fact my attendants were changed four or five times due to them feeling 'decidedly unwell' gave me some kind of suspicion.  
"Terman's gone home" Blissix had explained to me as he brought me my food "Said he was feelin' sick"  
I made no comment, even though I wanted to ask him if the guy had been feeling itchy, or had been talking about food rather more than he should. Instead, I just lay there. At nights, my hands were strapped and so were my feet.  
It was evening now, and I'd had the restraints put on, although they were secured by small padlocks which to me seemed a little over the top.   
  
Another very obvious hint was given to me by the fact that on the lunchtime of the third day, I was being taken out for my exercise. It had been a freezing morning, and wearing hospital clothes that's not a pleasant complaint.  
I was walking slowly, melancholy - I had little to live for, so my pace matched my mood.  
Samson and some other guy called Dauberman were taking me for exercise, and I was looking out over the city - Which seemed somewhat darker than usual, even though I could see people walking the streets.  
I turned to my left, and saw another pair of attendant's walk past, taking another inmate for a walk. I got a five second look at the inmate's face before I felt my blood freeze. The man's face was...Well, either he was suffering from an extreme case of eczema on his face, or...I didn't need to finish the answer, and the sections of torn open skin on his head where he'd been scratching finished the sentence for me.  
"Oh god..." I muttered, craning my head to see him as the attendants walked past   
"Now, now Leon..." one of the attendants said kindly "...We can't have you mixing with the other inmates"  
Oh, so we were on first name terms were we?!  
"Look, I've got to get out of here!" I insisted "That guy's infected"  
"Aren't we all" I could detect the patronising element in his voice.  
"I'm serious!!" I snapped "Look, if that guy was to even get near any of you guys, you'll all become zombies"  
"I guess we'll prove that point when we come to it"  
I knew that at that point that we were all going to die - There was no stopping the virus now. It had got into the institution. My greatest worry now was if I was infected.  
What if I was?  
I'd never be able to go near Claire again - But by then I'd probably be a bloodthirsty zombie.  
Thankfully, I didn't think I was infected. I'd found out why later, but at that point I couldn't do anything.  
Could you if you were held by hand AND ankle restraints?  
I could hear the sound outside. I could hear the sounds of dogs howling, the glory of the hunt.   
The glory of the kill.  
I shuddered. The virus was in the city too - And if Claire had been stupid enough to come and rescue me...  
I felt a sudden pang of fear and rage, and I desperately jerked at the restraints that held me down, but after about twenty seconds, I gave up.  
I heard distant zombie moans. By the fifth night, which was now, the creatures were everywhere. I hadn't left my room since yesterday, and I presumed that everybody had now succumbed to the virus.  
No weapon, no clothes...no hope.  
I was just about ready to drift off into sleep, when there was a rattle, and it turned to the door only to see Samson wrench open the door and slam it behind him. He leaned against the wall, panting.  
He turned to me, eyes wide with fear.  
"What did you say the name of that virus was again?"  
I nearly laughed.   
Only now he believed me?! Only now?! People never learn, I reflected. I held in the laugh, and instead said   
"The T-Virus - Surprised you're still alive"  
"Leon" he knelt beside me "How did you know?"  
"I've known for nearly two years" I replied "During which time I've been attacked, shot, infected, burned, had leg broken, been shot again and been stung by a giant scorpion"  
"Why?"  
"Do you have any idea what it's like to have a dear friend killed by a T-Virus creature? Or to find out your dad spent his last moments as a mutant blob with mandibles, tentacles and a horrible eye?"  
"No"  
"THAT'S why I've been fighting - To destroy Umbrella Incorporated, to bring them down no matter what the cost"  
Samson exhaled.  
"Why wasn't anything done?" he muttered.  
"Umbrella couldn't give a rats ass about anybody, not even its employees - You've been betrayed by your financiers. They want to bring down this town, and take everybody with it"  
He clenched his fists.  
"I...can't..." he sagged "I'm sorry..."  
"Never mind now, but we've got to get out of here"  
He looked at me.  
"I don't have the key to your restraints, Leon"  
I stared, hard into his features.  
"What?"   
"I'm sorry..." he turned away to leave, before he turned back to me.  
"Sorry?! That's all you can say?!"  
He grasped my hand, as if making a final friendly goodbye, except I felt a strange cold sensation as he pressed an object into my palm.  
"That's all I can do. Good luck"   
Samson threw open the door, and ran out.   
I looked at my hand.  
A paperclip, twisted into a two pronged device.  
I had spent many hours in the summer being taught how to pick locks by Jill, hours and hours spent practising over and over again.  
Now was my chance to put that into practice.  
I inserted it into the lock.   
As best I could with one hand, I fiddled as best I could with the lock, cursing whenever I got it wrong or got the wire stuck.  
It took maybe fifteen minutes. I was just giving up hope when there was a click, and the padlock dropped off. Victory. I shook off the restraint, and used my other hand to unlock my other hand, and after that the rest was easy. Soon I was free, and I sat up, stretching my joints. When I felt I had loosened up sufficiently, I walked out into the corridor.  
It was quiet...I could hear shuffling, though. I knew what that meant. I instinctively reached down to my side, hoping to pull out my gun...But I suddenly remembered I hadn't had a weapon by my side for more than a week.   
Zombies around, and you've got no gun.  
Congratulations Kennedy, you've screwed this one up.  
I looked around, just able to keep calm. Then, I saw it. Sealed behind triple thick glass was a fire axe.   
I could get it, if...  
I saw a fire extinguisher lying not far from it, and I quickly ran up to it, and picked up its weight.   
I brought it as hard as I could against the glass. It cracked, and I did it again. It cracked further. With one last bash, the glass gave way, and I hauled out the fire axe, testing its weight in my hands. It'd do for now, until I could get some kind of a gun.   
I tiptoed down the corridor, wincing as I felt my feet treading on broken glass.  
Broken glass? Four floors up?!  
Waitasec...  
I heard an ominous cawing. I looked down the corridor, to see the shadows move. To my horror, I saw that it wasn't a large shadow - it was a flock of crows.  
'Flock' was a stupidly cute word to use for the demonic creatures that stared at me.  
I ran back, only to see them take off like jets from their home-base, and flap towards me. I swung the axe as the first one came near, I missed by nearly two feet.  
I swung back, this time the axe hit something and there was a screech as a bird was splattered against the wall with a large axe wound in its body.   
I swung the axe furiously, as if it would stop the birds flying towards me. I gave up and ran, chased by the monstrous birds. There was a metal door at the end of the corridor, and I ran through, slamming it shut behind me. It instantly locked, and I leaned against it, sighing with relief.  
I could hear the creatures furiously beating their wings and stabbing their beaks, but I was safe. For now at any rate, they could never get through metal.  
I walked on, looking around at the corridor. It was another part of the inmate level - Which meant that at least a few of them would still be alive. I was just about to check it out, when three doors burst open. My heart skipped a beat as I saw three zombies, one attendant and two inmates lurch towards me, arms stretched out in the ever familiar stance that the undead adopted.   
I swung the fire axe as the first one got near, the axe-head buried itself deep in its jaw, before I swung again and with a horrible cracking and squelching, the axe tore up through its face. I pulled out the axe as the creature dropped down dead, and prepared for the next one. This time, I aimed for its neck. Since it had only just become a zombie, the bone was not yet incredibly brittle, so it took two hits before the head finally toppled off its shoulders, blood spilling down its body as it slumped beside its compatriot.  
The third zombie I dealt with by rolling between its decaying legs, and whacking it hard in the back. I heard a crack, and I was just able to pull out the axe as the zombie staggered towards one of the broken windows, and toppled out.   
There was a distant, and almost comical splat.  
I tried not to think about the mess outside, although I could foresee the undead hordes gathering to feed on its corpse...I tried not to think about it any further than that.  
I didn't quite know what had happened, although I was under the suspicion that the electrics were down. The place was unusually deserted, although I could hear the plaintive moans of zombified patients, beating futilely on the insides of their locked cell doors.   
This didn't make me feel any better as I turned the corner. I jumped back, seeing Neals, the sadist who'd beaten me on my first day in, standing there looking pale and trembling.  
"W-w-what are those things?!" he asked me, in a quavering voice.  
"Zombies" I replied, with undisguised contempt.  
He looked at me, fear filling his eyes. I wanted to laugh, show how pitiful he'd become from the huge, unemotional savage he'd been before. But it wasn't right. Even to an animal such as this, I couldn't laugh in this situation, it would be morally wrong.  
I tried to prevent myself from punching him, and in a restrained manner I said  
"Are there any other survivors?"  
"I-I-I don't know! I've been running from those creatures!"   
I breathed.  
"So where exactly have you been?"  
"Downstairs! I-I-"  
He looked around, panic-stricken.  
"I don't know what's going on!! I just want to get out of here!!" he then wailed "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!"  
I grabbed his shirt.  
"Listen to me" I hissed "I'd happily beat you to a pulp, but I have control over my instincts - So listen to me right now"   
The man went silent, looking at me.  
"I want you to find any other survivors, try to find an offensive weapon of some kind and try to keep out of the way of any zombies. If all goes well, meet me at the Director's office"  
"Why are you helping me?" he asked.  
"Because when it's human's versus Umbrella's virus carriers, then we're allies" I glared at him "But don't think for one moment that I've forgiven you for beating me earlier this week"  
The man was pale, and he nodded.  
"Are you sure you didn't see anybody alive downstairs?"  
"Well..." the man licked his lips "Nobody alive, I saw a couple of zombies coming into the lobby - Oh, but I did see a woman enter the east wing"  
"A woman?" I stared at him intently "What did she look like?"  
"I only saw her for a few seconds! I-"  
"WHAT DID SHE LOOK LIKE?!"  
"Brown ponytail! Looked like she was carrying a gun, wore a red jacket!"  
I outwardly sighed, but I could barely contain my joy. It was Claire, I just knew it was. She was the only person I knew who'd try something like this.  
What puzzled me was how did she find me?  
"Okay" I said "You better go. See you later"  
He nodded, and ran off down the left corridor of the T-Junction we'd been standing at, leaving me alone.  
I had to find Claire, before she did anything foolish. I ran down the tiled corridor, hope growing inside me as I came across a few zombies with large bloody holes in their chests - Not the usual reaction to a zombie, you would be the first to notice, but since the fatal wounds seemed to have been made by a shell blast from a Remington 120, an exact model of which Chris had bought Claire for her protection only recently...But then again there could be thousands of people who owned a Remington 120.   
I ran down the corridor, skidding in a spilled puddle from a mop bucket that nearly twisted my ankle. I cursed, and got up. I realised that I was standing right in front of a metal door, and I realised that it wasn't a cell. It was the filing room, where they kept patient records and transport forms etcetera.   
I was considering walking on, when I heard a crack behind me. I turned to see a wooden door being split down the middle. As I watched, a long crack spread over the wooden surface with appropriate tearing noises, and I stepped back as half of the wood exploded outwards, splinters scattering on the floor - To reveal seven zombies who had just busted in from the west wing!   
Why weren't all the doors made out of consistent materials? I thought, backing away from the decaying hordes. The asylum was an architectural disaster, it was being remodelled and renewed every ten minutes, and the east wing was one of the oldest parts of the whole hospital. I only knew this because of a talk I'd had with Blissix sometime on the third day, who had instructed me on the history of the asylum. He'd been giving me my meals solitarily as they always did to me.  
Now I was free, but not necessarily safer.  
I backed up against the door, and felt the handle prod my backside.  
I wrenched the handle down, nearly fell backwards into the room and slammed the door. I could hear them beat the door, moaning pathetically as they tried to get through - Although they seemed to lose interest after about thirty seconds.  
I turned around, and looked around the room I was in. It was a fairly small room, and this wasn't helped by the fact it was almost choc-a-bloc with shelves and cabinets filled with files, all bulging.  
I walked to the first out of the four aisles, treading on hundreds of pieces of paper littering the floor. Obviously keeping the records wasn't that important to the staff.  
I stepped forwards again.  
Click  
A gun was pointed at my head. It was mostly dark, so I was unable to see my attacker. I turned very slowly...  
"Claire?!"  
Claire lowered her semi-automatic, and her face burst into a relieved smile.  
"Leon!!"  
I embraced her as hard as I could have; I squeezed her warm body close, her face buried in my neck, my face breathing in the smell of her beautiful chestnut hair.  
"Claire! You silly, silly girl! You came to rescue me...putting your life in danger for me..."  
"I had to" she whispered "I couldn't leave you in a mental asylum, I love you too much"   
"Claire, oh god..." I was on the verge of tears "...I've missed you so much...and god I do love you"  
"I've missed you too"  
I kissed her on the lips, our first full kiss for a while. We stood there, passionately kissing for maybe five minutes, before we broke off, grinning like puppies.  
"How did you know where to find me?" I asked, still holding her.  
"One of Chris's contacts, said a contact of his saw you being taken to Burkitt"  
"Really? I better thank Chris for that..." I gently stroked her hair "How's Sherry and the others?"  
"They're fine!" Claire replied "Chris and Sherry are in a hotel across town, everybody else is back in New York, and they're all fine too"  
"And...Steve and Ada?"  
"Fine" she whispered, smiling encouragingly.  
I looked around the room, as if surveying a city.  
"This building's infested" I said "I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't much different in town"   
"It isn't" Claire admitted "The whole town's like hell on earth, half of the population is zombified, the other half's either on the way to becoming zombies, or they're running away from the Umbrella creatures attacking them"  
"Umbrella's here already?" I asked.  
"The T-Virus got around pretty fast" Claire said "We arrived here about four or five hours ago, and it wasn't that bad then - The whole place has gone to hell"  
"Or hell's come to us" I said, nodding.   
"I've seen a licker and some zombie dogs, but apart from that, there isn't that much else in the way of Umbrella's mutant menagerie"   
I nodded again. She looked my nightshirt up and down, a little bemused.  
"Cold?"  
"I'm goddamn freezing" I admitted, grinning "Let's try and find my proper clothes at some point, they keep them in the storage locker-room, there's one not far from here"  
"I guess you've been around this hospital enough to know, huh?"  
"Let's just say I'm getting used to it"   
I looked around again, as if I was expecting something to happen.  
"How did you get here anyway?" I asked, my questions would continue.  
"Took the elevator, I got out onto this floor and I heard some guy running around, so I decided to shelter in here until he'd gone"  
That would be Neals, I thought.  
"Well, if we're going to stand any chance at getting out of here, I'm gonna need my clothes...It's frigging cold in here"   
She nodded, smiling.   
"Let's see what we can do about that - Where'd they put your clothes?"  
"They keep patients stuff in the locker-rooms, there's one for every wing, makes stuff less confusing"  
Claire looked around the files  
"Although it couldn't be any less confusing than this" she remarked.  
I ran my hand down a row of files, stuffed with papers.  
"It might be useful to try and work out how the T-Virus escaped in the first place, I still don't know how they did it"  
It was more of an insatiable curiosity more than anything else, but Claire nodded, agreeing.  
"Do you know where to look?" she asked.  
"Let's look at patient records, delivery forms and other ways they could have infected everybody here - If we find something suspicious, this could have been how they infected the entire city"   
"Right" she said, and hauled out a pile of files, stacking them on the floor before beginning to flick through the papers inside.   
  
We were there for maybe half an hour, reading through files, throwing irrelevant paperwork away...There was nothing, we'd wasted our time.  
"Ah!" I turned to Claire, to see her triumphantly remove a slip of paper from a file "I think this could be important"  
I walked over to her.  
"What is it?"  
"Delivery form! Dated..." she looked at the date printed on it "...A week ago"  
"Two days before I arrived" I muttered "Okay..."  
We looked at it. It was a form requesting two interesting items - The first was for canisters of what was classified as GAS5X of which ten crates of cylinders were required.  
The next item was T001.  
It didn't take much to guess exactly what that was.  
"Deliberate infection?" Claire whispered.  
"Seems like it" I replied.   
"So...now we know that...what do we do?"  
"I suggest we find the director's office - He probably keeps a record of everything that goes on...but first..."   
I shivered.  
"Let's get my clothes back first"  
  
  
The locker-room was down the corridor and round the corner, and after studying the serial number printed on the tag attached to my ankle, I located the correct box containing my clothes.  
God it was a relief to be back in normal clothes again, you have no idea.  
Once I was changed again, and I was wearing my own boots again, we set off to try and find the director's office.  
I knew where it was, I'd traversed the lonely corridors of Burkitt Mental Asylum enough - true, it was only five days, but when you haven't got much else to do, you memorise the layout of the place.  
We walked straight into a group of zombies when we got there, four were bent over a body, gorging hungrily on their kill.  
I swallowed, seeing that the body belonged to Neals. I should, or could have felt pity. But I felt nothing.  
It was at that point I suddenly realised I didn't have a gun, only the axe which I'd salvaged a little while ago.  
"Leon" Claire said, turning to me "Catch!"  
I caught something metal and quite heavy in my hands.  
It was my magnum. I grinned.  
"Fully loaded?"  
"Four extra clips in here" she said, patting a pouch in her vest.  
I smiled, and raised my magnum as the first zombies came close, Claire whipped out her shotgun.   
Two magnum bullets and two shotgun blows made short work of the undead creatures, skulls shattering in explosions of red as they collapsed to the floor.  
"Well" Claire said "At least you haven't lost your touch"  
I grinned, and then pinched her bottom, she yelped and turned to me with a grin, but her voice was mockingly scornful, and more than a little coy.  
"Leon! THAT was uncalled for" she said.  
"Like you said, I haven't lost my touch" I said, grinning.  
  
The office was just how I remembered it - Pink and uncomfortable. Malone wasn't in.   
"Look's like the director's out" Claire remarked, scanning the desk "Does he keep a record book?"  
"Might have a diary" I replied, throwing scrap paper onto the floor as I tried to search for the illusive diary.  
I found it at the bottom of the pile, a red and leather bound book, fitting for a rich man of Malone's position.  
I opened it, and scoured it for the date for a week ago.  
  
SATURDAY  
  
Umbrella are making yet more impossible calls to my office, they've told me about this 'master plan' of theirs, which will result in the destruction of Burkitt - They sent me two deliveries, both of which I requested storage in the basement for now. The first is a shipment of Umbrella's new gas - It's odourless, and less harmless to the system, but it is more flammable. It's going to replace our old gas system in a month - At least that's the cover story. I was told to store all the canisters in various positions around the ground floor. The gas, when compressed, is highly explosive, and can be very, very dangerous. The second is a large quantity of the T-Virus. I was told that providing I avoided any of the local water supplies and never ate anything from the canteen, I should stay uninfected.  
Umbrella have told me that I'll be a rich man if I can pull this off. They're sending in choppers in a week to extract all Umbrella associates - Although there is another squad going in to rescue civilians. I can't wait. I hate this god-damned place.  
  
MONDAY  
  
Quiet day. I wonder if Umbrella are really going to rescue civilians? Seems a little weird to me...  
  
TUESDAY  
  
The Asylum picked up a man called Leon S. Kennedy, specifically brought here by Umbrella to be 'contained'   
He babbled about the T-Virus, and knew a worrying amount of information. I guess I'll found out what Umbrella have planned for him.  
  
The next few entries were irrelevant - Apart from yesterday's entry...  
  
FRIDAY  
  
I can't believe it. I am betrayed. Umbrella have infected me and everybody with the virus - I always thought it was a little odd that they'd be so keen on paying me. I'll be...something different tomorrow. Early this morning, I opened a couple of the gas cylinders scattered around the building. A single spark, and the other canisters will go up, and so will the building.   
A fitting finish. A blaze of glory. As soon as the electricity malfunctions, or somebody lights a cigarette, the whole building will catch fire.  
This is my last entry. Goodbye world, you've sucked all the way.  
  
I closed the book.   
"So...That's it I guess. They spread the virus around the patients, who in turn attacked their attendants and so on and so on..."  
"And when they went home they attacked others, who in turn attacked other people etcetera etcetera"   
I nodded.  
"Now we know - I say that we should get out of here"  
We left the office quickly, walking down the tiled corridor towards the elevator doors directly in front of us.  
I walked up to the lift doors, and pressed the recall button.  
There was a hum...Then there was the screech of metal, and the doors opened.  
No lift. Just the empty shaft.  
I leaned inside, and looked up.  
"Oh brother"  
The lift was stuck.  
I looked down into the darkness below, and saw some light where it spilled into the shaft from the corridor below.  
"Are there any stairs?" Claire asked.   
"Nah. Safety"  
She nodded, and looked down.  
"It's funny I-"  
There was an ominous FZZT.  
I looked down. A power cable had burst loose, and was hanging down the shaft...ready to short circuit...the gas...  
"Claire" I whispered "The gas"  
We looked at each other in horror.  
"RUN!!!" I yelled, and just as we turned back - The wire sparked.  
It didn't begin with a bang, it sounded more like a large animal clearing its throat underwater.  
WHUMPH.  
The ball of fire rose up the elevator at an incredible speed, and as we ran, the fireball exploded out into the corridor, flames spilling out to the sides as its main force powered down the corridor. The firewall chased us down the corridor as we ran, I could feel its searing heat at my back and its vicious grumbling as it tried to catch up. We skidded around the corner, and the inferno smacked into the wall, the fireball itself burning out - But the building was now on fire. And the fire was now impossible to put out. The building was mostly glass and concrete, but there was wood in its structure somewhere. The corridor was burning, the floor was like grass on fire and the window-frames and roof were alight too.  
Then, the entire building shook as canisters exploded everywhere on the ground floor - That single spark was all it needed. We ran to the window, and as we looked down the windows on the ground floor burst outwards, fire shooting outwards and upwards, licking the walls of the building.  
The building rumbled again, as further canisters exploded. I had to close my eyes, the heat from the fire on this floor was too much.  
We ran back, heads turned away from the blaze as we ran to a safe zone.  
"Somehow..." Claire said "...I don't think escape is an option"  
"Are there any other escape routes?"  
"How should I know? I only went up the elevator"  
I sighed.  
"No emergency exits, they're all on the ground floor - Who designed this goddamned building?"  
We looked at each other.  
"What about the roof? Any way off of that?"  
I thought.  
"Uh..."  
"Waitasec..." Claire thought "There's a cable leading off the roof of the building...the highest part I mean - Think we could use that?"  
I looked at Claire. Sometimes, she was so unbelievably brilliant I could just kiss her on the spot.  
"It's brilliant, and it's stupid...and it's the only plan we've got"  
"What do you mean it's stupid?!" she asked, incredulously. I kissed her.  
"I was joking" I said, soothingly.  
  
Burn, Burkitt, Burn!  
  
Our plan was to get up to the highest tower's roof, but considering we had fifteen floors to cover for this to work, we still had a lot of ground to cover. From what we discovered as we took the stairs up, the fire was spreading quickly. Too quickly.  
Flames were already starting to engulf the fifth floor as we ran up to the sixth, and we could already smell the smoke from that fire as we ran up to floor seven.   
Unfortunately, after floor seven, there was a problem.  
"Ach!" Claire looked at the decapitated stairs up to floor eight "Somebody's been hacking up the stairs!"  
The stairs, while being metal, had been torn apart by something - Whether or not it was an Umbrella creature we didn't know. One thing was for sure, we wouldn't be able to use those stairs.   
Due to our current record of improvisation, coming up with a solution wasn't incredibly difficult.  
"Okay" I said "If the lifts are out due to the fire, then their cables should still be there, right?"  
Claire nodded at me slowly.  
"I think I can see what you're getting at" she replied.  
"Good" I said "So let's do it!"  
  
There was only one lift that wasn't surrounded by a fiery inferno, so we tried that lift. The lift doors had been wedged open, blood leaked down its doors and we tried not to look as we edged through onto the narrow ledge just before the lift shaft. The cable was attached fairly rigidly to the lift, whose roof was right in front of us, and at walking level.  
While I wasn't entirely sure how safe it was, it was the only escape exit we had. Very gingerly, I stepped out onto the top of the elevator. I looked at Claire, who stepped out too. There was a metallic groan, and I held my breath. No, it held.  
I put on my gloves, and looked up.  
"Not that much of a climb" I said "And the doors are open on floor eight, at least that's something"   
This was at least true, the lift doors to floor eight were wide open. Perfect.  
I grasped the cable with my hands, and began to shin up. I felt the rough metal cable scrape against my pants as I hauled myself up. I could feel the strain on my hands as I pulled myself higher. Soon, I was level with the open lift doors. It wasn't that much of a jump, but I didn't want to miss. I took a deep breath, and made a jump for it. My top half landed in corridor outside the doors, my legs dangling, desperately trying to get a foothold on the wall. I clawed on the smooth tiles of the floor, and somehow...I was able to drag myself up onto the floor. I lay panting for a moment, before I leaned over to look down. Claire was shinning up herself, and I watched as she drew level, and leapt herself. She found herself immediately in the same position I had been in, but I hauled her in.  
"Well, at least we did that..." Claire panted.  
"Come on" I stood up "Let's get up to the roof"  
We walked down the corridor, there was no hurry at the moment, the fire still had another few floors to burn through, so we were safe at least for the moment. Around the corner, we came to a closed door.  
In the corner, just adjacent to the door lay a man. A dead man, but not a zombie. We looked over his body, he had been gnawed all over by zombies, maybe even dogs, but either way, he was smeared with blood, his lopsided head the characteristic last facial position of the dead man. His bloodied hand clasped a small piece of paper - a piece of paper he'd obviously given his life to protect.  
I gently took it from his hands, silently praying before we looked at the piece of paper.  
  
We've been up here for a few days now. We know we're not going to escape - There's nowhere to escape to. We've decided to take out all the infected creatures in one go...We've sealed all the doors to the lower levels...It's going to be good to know that very soon this place will just be a pile of embers...  
  
I looked at Claire.  
"Doesn't sound good"  
"No" she agreed "That's true"  
We looked cautiously at the door. We were taking a risk, who could know what lay beyond the door.  
Ah, hell.  
I wrenched the handle, and we both stepped inside.  
The first and most obvious element of the new environment as the door slammed behind us, was the smell.  
"Jeez..." Claire wrinkled her nose "...What is that smell?"  
I sniffed it. It was familiar. Very, very familiar.   
As we walked on, the answer came to mind.  
A horrible thought entered my mind, as it did at the same time with Claire.  
We stopped, and very slowly turned to look at each other.  
"Gas" we said, in unison. Not the odourless stuff from downstairs, but good old industrial gas.  
Knowing that only a few floors below there was a raging fire and that we were standing on a floor full of gas sealed off from the rest of the building - it was barely worth thinking about.  
"I think our chances have just been halved" Claire said, flatly "So let's get moving"  
I tried not to breathe in the gas as we ran up the flights of stairs, up floor nine, ten, eleven, twelve, fourteen - all of the levels were saturated with gas.   
On floor fourteen, I looked out of the window and downwards. Floor seven was completely engulfed - Not long to go.  
"Look!" Claire pointed out another flight of steps, which led off from the corridor. At the top was a metal door labelled 'ROOF'  
Neither of us needed any prompting, we hammered up the steps and burst out into the fresh air of the late night. We gasped, breathing proper air as opposed to gas was definitely a change.  
We ran to the edge of the building. Looking down, the fire didn't appear to have made any progress, although we could see glowing orange embers down in the city where fires were starting up. A police siren howled mournfully in the night, the death-knell of Burkitt.   
Wind blew Claire's hair across her face, which she threw back so she could see better.   
"Whaddya think?" I asked, turning to look at the cable that led to a building half as large, the wire attached to two generators on either side. The rain was coming down quite hard now, I could feel it on my hair as Claire turned to look at me.  
"I think we need to reconsider - We haven't got time to climb across that cable"  
I looked at it again, and realised that she was absolutely right - It would be physically impossible for us to climb the length of the cable in the short amount of time we had.  
"Okay" I said, let's try to find something to help us"  
The roof was large, but it didn't take us long to find a walk in storage cabinet just next to the generator.  
Inside was a collection of seemingly useless equipment - Buckets and sponges, cleaning fluids etcetera. It was cleaning equipment for the window cleaners so that they knew exactly where to get it. There was also some cable there, rope, a harness and other such paraphernalia piled disorganised on the floor.  
"Hey..." Claire said "....do you think this may come in useful?"   
She picked up the harness, which I studied carefully.  
I remembered summer camps, I remembered being taught how to-  
"Zipwire" I said, grinning.  
"Pardon?"  
"I know it's a long shot, but that cables actually quite steep, right? If we gave ourselves a good push we could zipwire over to the other building"  
She grinned, and shook her head.  
"It's absolutely insane..." then she looked at me and kissed me on the cheek "...But it's a very good idea"  
  
Soon we were ready. Claire used her Remington 120 to incapacitate the electricity generator, which with a buzz and a moan ceased to work.  
I clipped the harness to the wire as we stood on the ledge of the building.  
Since there was only the one, we were going together.  
I strapped myself in, at Claire's insistence, and Claire sat on my lap. I wrapped my arms around her right, securing two parts of the multi-stringed harness to her body.  
"For insurance" I said, touching her cheek.  
She smiled.  
"Ready for the ultimate thrill ride?"  
"Wouldn't miss it for the world" I replied, grinning.   
Claire propped her feet on the parapet, and pushed us off, wrapping her legs around me as we slid off the roof.  
The zipwire was a little slow at first, but it went faster and faster as we shot further down. I was aware we were practically in mid-air, so I clung onto Claire with all the strength in me.  
Don't even think that your arms are going to get tired, Kennedy  
I could hear the furious grating of the clip on the wire as we shot down its length, so I said to Claire.  
"When do you think-?"  
She never finished the sentence.  
The explosion was one of the loudest I had ever heard. 'Boom' was woefully inadequate for the screaming explosion that blasted our ears. I turned my head, and watched in horrified awe as floor by floor, the windows and concrete exploded outwards spectacularly, and I felt the heat of the fire as the inferno exploded out with the glass.   
The explosions raced up the building, and I watched as the fire lifted the roof off the building and the orange fireball thumped up into the night sky like a rising phoenix, wreckage being blown outwards from the sheer force of the explosion. The room was now a glowing orange carcass, flames of hell engulfing its entire top half.   
Suddenly, I felt an agonising pain as some small shards of glass buried themselves in the back of my neck, and I cried out in pain as I felt some blood leak down onto my collar, but my cry was lost in the din.   
"Leon!" Claire said, loudly "Unclip the wire!"  
I looked forwards to see that if I didn't unclip it, we'd hit the opposite wall hard enough for us both to be turned into human pizzas.  
I pulled the release catch, and then suddenly both of us were falling. We crashed through the wet wood of a roof-shed, and then with a 'Flump' sound, we landed on a soft surface, a few old mattresses covered by a tarpaulin.  
We looked up for a moment.  
"WE DID IT!" Claire crowed, and I joined in too, our cries of triumph and joy echoing through the shed.  
Claire sat astride me, and looked down at me, pouting.  
She looked more beautiful than I'd ever seen her, and she leaned down onto me.  
"We've got a while" she said, softly "Why don't we-?"  
I rolled my eyes.  
"Why don't we wait until later, okay?" I kissed her on the forehead "I'll make up for it then, I promise you"  
She smiled, and rolled off me.  
We stood up, and then checked out the shed. It was large, rain sodden and smelled like somebody had been leaving garbage out for hours and hours.  
I tried not to think about the smell as I looked around the mess in the shed. It was filled with planks, barrels and other related hardware.  
Claire and I walked together towards the exit out onto the roof, footsteps clicking softly on the concrete floor beneath our feet.  
I could sense...Something was wrong.  
I heard the tiniest of tiny sounds...  
As if on instinct, I pulled out my magnum and pointed it to my left.  
"Well, well, well..." A voice said "You're one of the only people to had sneaked up on me like that"  
The person stepped out of the shadows, hands up. He was dressed in black, an Umbrella logo stencilled on his shoulder. He was a big man, and although his face was a strong one, it wasn't a particularly sinister or unpleasant face.   
I kept my ground though as he stepped closer, forehead practically on the tip of my weapon.  
"You're obviously good...Although..." he said, and his hand was a blur, before I felt something metal press against my side "...You can make your fair share of mistakes too, huh?"  
"Who are you?" Claire said, withdrawing her weapon.  
"Before you say anything, yes, I am with Umbrella, but no I am not here to capture any viruses or steal info, okay? I'm here to find as many civilians as I can, and then get out...Ok?"  
"How do we know you're telling the truth?" I asked, coldly.  
"Why would I bother making anything up? Besides, I'm only a lieutenant - It's the supervisors who know any other orders we have"  
We both relaxed, all of us holstering our weapons.  
"So...Who are you?" Claire asked.  
The man pulled out a cigar from his breast pocket, and lit the end, taking a deep breath before expelling the smoke in a long puff.  
"They call me Mr. Death"  
"Your real name" I said, arms folded.  
He shrugged, and then smiled.  
"Hunk" he said, simply "Agent Hunk"  
  
Death has a new name  
  
"Mr Death, huh?" Claire asked "I think I'll stick with Hunk"  
"Me too" I said, nodding.  
"So..." he leaned against the wall "Who are you exactly, and why did you 'drop in'"  
We ignored the pun, and proceeded to tell him the story as to how I had been committed, and Claire came to rescue me.  
"I came here with Chris and Sherry" Claire explained "And I'm afraid that if we don't hurry, they'll be killed"  
I nodded, although I was a little surprised to hear that Sherry and Chris were in Burkitt at all.  
"Right, so I think we oughta get back to them" I turned to Hunk again "It just depends what your stance on the situation is Mr. Hunk - Are you going to stand with Umbrella, or are you going to join us and not stick a gun in our backs when the time comes?"  
He was incredibly laid back about the whole affair, he appeared to consider my question for a while, before turning back to me. He shrugged.  
"I'll stay with you - I haven't got much else to do, and besides - You can give me a hand rescuing civilians"  
"Good" I said "But remember, any funny business - and we will not hesitate to shoot you"  
"Slap me up against the wall and bring out the firing squad" Hunk quipped.  
Somehow, I just knew that wouldn't be the last of his 'humorous' quips.   
"Okay then" I said, walking towards the door, and motioning for Claire and Hunk to follow "Are we going?"  
  
The street below was in absolute chaos as we forced our way out of the building onto the streets. The building itself had a substantial collection of zombies lurching around on all of the floors.   
Hunk proved how able a fighter he was to us, with an Uzi he had slung around his shoulder he was able to dispose of zombies fairly quickly-and casually.  
On the second floor, he'd been standing in the corridor, watching a zombie I'd just shot, when another came up behind him.   
I was about to yell 'Look out!' when he casually flicked his hunting knife backwards into the zombies face, sinking it up to the hilt into its decayed flesh.  
Claire and I looked on disgusted, as the zombie slumped down behind him. We'd killed zombies before (You've probably noticed) - But the sheer casualness of the whole thing was almost overwhelming.  
He looked at us, as if he'd barely noticed.  
"What?" he asked.   
Nobody said anything.  
  
The street was a raging warzone when we arrived down, despite the drenched roads and sidewalks - the buildings were fiery carcasses, flames licking the heavens as we looked around. Wrecked cars lay on their sides, and others were crunched up against the walls, windscreens smashed into spiderweb's and the bonnet crunched up like tinfoil. A truck lay on its side, most of its mass engulfed in flames, and out of its fiery wreckage crawled numerous flaming zombies, moaning and wailing plaintively.  
"Now to find Chris and Sherry" Claire said, stepping out into the water washed street, shimmering with colour slightly because of leaking petrol.  
"Why don't we take my vehicle?" Hunk suggested "It's parked around the corner, providing it hasn't blown up or been driven into"  
Claire and I looked at each other. While we weren't prepared to fully trust Hunk yet, the chances of us getting to wherever Chris and Sherry were waiting on foot were so absurdly remote that we would have jumped at the chance of getting into a car.   
He was already taking the lead, not waiting for our answer, and so we ran after him as he ran down the sidewalk, gracefully side-stepping lurching undead as he ran down the side of the building and turned the corner.  
"I don't know if we should really trust the guy" Claire pointed out as we ran towards the corner.  
"Well, if he's got a vehicle we can at least latch on to for now, then we can just hang around and if and when he makes a move on us, we split"  
Claire nodded as we ran.   
We skidded to a halt as we heard an engine roar - and then a sleek, black jeep drove out from behind the building and pulled up with a screech of brakes.  
Hunk leaned out of the window, and grinned.  
"Need a lift?"  
"Yeah" I said, and Claire and I leapt onto the back of the jeep, which took off in a spray of water.  
Claire and I clung to the back of the jeep as Hunk accelerated down the rain sodden road, and lurched worryingly to the left as Hunk snapped the jeep into a turn so sharp that it nearly hurled us off.  
I glared into the cab.  
"Could you please omit the fancy stunts, Hunk?!"  
He didn't turn back to me, but said anyway  
"You gotta live dangerous to survive, Leon"  
I gritted my teeth as Hunk took the jeep into another ridiculous turn, hugging the corner of a building before Hunk took us up onto the inner-city highway.   
"Where is you wanted to go?!" Hunk called back.  
"Hotel Paradis!" Claire replied.   
"Okay - Hold on!" Hunk said, and we seemed to go faster as the jeep tore across the empty highway, swerving to avoid crashed cars and other vehicles. There were various squelching sounds as Hunk brought the speeding vehicle straight into several unfortunate zombies as he powered down the highway.  
"What have Umbrella got in mind for this place anyhow?" I yelled at Hunk in the gale.   
"I don't know!" he called back "They said something about Operation Omega, but I have no idea what that is!"  
Claire and I exchanged worried glances.  
Operation Omega?  
The knowledge that Omega was Latin for 'End' didn't make us feel any better.  
  
END OF PART TWO  
  
Part three coming soon!   



	3. PART 3

  
LEON  
  
Deadly rain  
  
"Operation Omega huh?" Claire asked, almost casually.  
"Yeah - Don't know exactly what it involves, but I just work for them"  
We eyed him dubiously.   
I was about to say something - When something made me look up. A drawn out jet engine.   
Jets?  
As I looked up, I could see a flight wing of approximately nine black aircraft - bombers it seemed to me in a standard arrow formation hammering across the sky at quite an unsafe speed. They were far above us, so Claire and I watched as the black aircraft cruised overhead - and then suddenly, the sky was filled with silver dots, looking like crystallised ants eggs as they came closer.   
"Hey..." Claire said "...I don't think those are ours"  
"No shit" I muttered as the dots grew larger, and they spilled out over the city. There was a whoosh as one thudded into the ground to our left, and another loud thud as another embedded itself in the road beside us. As we looked, we saw that they were enormous canisters, some larger than the others - and all of them looking foreboding. Another crashed into a building, crunching straight through the brick building before thundering into the ground, leaving devastation behind it.  
"Hey! Watch out for those things!" I yelled as more canisters thundered down around us.   
The jeep screeched to the left and to the right for about ten more seconds - before the rain of canisters ceased.  
As we drove on, I looked at some canisters that had landed on the bridge we were just crossing. They hissed for a moment - Before metal doors slid open in the canisters. To our horror, to the accompaniment of an inhuman screech, out leapt two hunters. They threw back their heads and screamed, sending shivers down my spine.  
"What the-?" Hunk asked softly, before raising his voice "Nobody said anything about THIS at the briefing!!"  
One of the hunters leapt for the jeep, its claws screeching up the paintwork before a shot from Claire's shotgun reminded it not to hitchhike without permission.  
"Is the other one chasing us?" Claire asked, reloading her shotgun with spare shells.  
I looked over her shoulder.  
"Correction - Are the other eight chasing us"  
She frowned for a second, before her eyes widened and she spun around to see what I saw. Eight hunters, all from the crashed canisters were sprinting down the bridge towards us as we sped onwards - all of who were catching up at a ridiculous pace.  
"You got any ideas?!" Hunk called back, cursing as he smashed the right wing mirror off the jeep.  
"Any heavy weapons back here?" I asked.  
"There's a rocket launcher and a heavy-machine gun under some blankets. Use them as you will" he replied, and then concentrated on the road again.  
Claire and I saw two brown bundles on the back of the jeep, and we quickly unwrapped them. Inside were precisely what Hunk said there were - A rocket launcher, with eight spare rounds, and a heavy-machine gun with two-hundred bullets.  
"Save the rocket launcher" Claire said "We'll probably need it at some point"  
I nodded.  
"Let's set up the machine-gun and use that"  
We set the enormous weapon up on its tripod, and loaded it.  
"Who's going to fire it?" Claire asked.  
"I will" I said "You use your shotgun to take off any other creatures that get too close"  
She nodded, and I grasped the weapon in my hands, my eye looking down the immense barrel towards the road and the advancing Hunters.  
I pulled the trigger, and the vicious staccato braying of the gun filled the air and as the enormous weapon jerked viciously in my grip as I barely aimed the enormous thing towards the road, and as I looked through the sights I could see that three hunters fell back, bodies laced with bullet fire, blood spraying from every wound. I hit two more, but after that my aim became pretty lousy.   
I just couldn't hit anything, and it was only after a lucky shot I took down another one. The other two persistently chased us, horrible mouths open in a gesture of attack. I stopped firing for a moment, and looked up to see one jump, and then latch on to the jeep with one claw, sinking its claw deep into the metal of the jeep. Claire pointed her shotgun at its hand.  
"Get off" she said simply, and pulled the trigger. The explosion tore the hunter's hand from its body in a matter of moments, and it was sent tumbling onto the road, rolling before it hit the other hunter. As we sped away, I watched the other hunter viciously attack its teammate, but then we were off the bridge and left the two furiously fighting creatures behind.   
"Good fighting!" Hunk called "Just about as good as I could do once!"  
I gave Claire a despairing look.  
"I think Mr. Hunk needs to get off his high horse for a while" I muttered.  
"No kidding" Claire replied, quietly.  
  
We were driving along the riverbank, I held onto Claire as the jeep screamed down the road, and took a sudden left hand turn as we reached the bottom of the road, Claire and I holding onto the sides as the jeep lurched to the left.  
"Do you really have to take turns so sharply?!" Claire asked Hunk, annoyed.  
"It's better than giving way!" Hunk called back, obviously enjoying himself.  
I rolled my eyes. Hunk was proving to be a good fighter, the 'king' of comedy and an extremely bad driver.   
Hunk hadn't given up with speed obviously, and it was this point when I was wondering if we'd gone the right way.  
"Claire?" I asked her.  
"What?"  
"How long did it take you to get from Hotel Paradis to the asylum?"  
"About...twenty-five minutes I think, why?"  
"Because Mr. Hunk here appears to be taking us on one hell of a detour - We've been driving for half an hour already!"  
Claire nodded, understanding.  
"You're right, actually...I'll ask him"  
She leaned over to Hunk.  
"Hey! You sure you know where we're going?"  
"Yeah!" he replied "You took a more direct route - Since then the whole goddamn street's caught fire! We've been forced to detour!"  
"Okay..." Claire said, and then suddenly she turned back to Hunk "Hey! How did you know which road I took?"  
Hunk sighed.  
"Alright, so I haven't been honest with you totally - I arrived sometime yesterday early afternoon, I was told that I would need to be ready to rescue some civilians, and while I was looking around I saw you go out of the Hotel, get in a car and drive off down the main road. From the Hotel, it does take about twenty-five minutes. About half an hour later, two tankers collided in that road, and now half the district's in flames! Although I don't think the Hotel was hit, it was mostly out of the radius" he said, presumably remembering that both Sherry and Claire were in the Hotel.  
"Let's just hope the fire hasn't reached the Hotel" Claire whispered, and I squeezed her hand.  
"I'm sure they haven't" I said, softly.   
There was a scream from the tyres as Hunk took the jeep screeching around the right hand corner, which took us to the other side of the jeep once again.  
Then, as we drove along, we saw some extremely large metal canisters embedded deep into the road to our left. These canisters, I noticed, were much larger than the hunter containers...I felt a chill penetrate my gut.  
"Claire..." I muttered "What do you think those canisters could be used for" It was not a question.  
"I've got an idea..." she replied.  
"Do you think we should tell Hunk?"  
"Uh...well it's not confirmed - but I guess we'd better tell him"  
I crawled up to the cab.  
"Hunk? You see those canisters?"  
"Uh-huh?"  
"Well...they could belong to-"  
There was rumble in the air.  
Hunk stopped the jeep so we could listen closer to the sound. Apart from the moaning of zombies, and distant screams, it was one of the only other sounds.   
It was quiet, but deep at first. The deep bass noise was slow, almost rhythmic. Then, it began to speed up slightly. As smoothly as the first had arrived, an identical sound added to this layer, so it became thicker. We listened carefully to the deep bass sounds.   
Boom...boom...boom...  
Rhythmic...Almost like...  
Claire and I exchanged horrified glances, and then turned to Hunk.  
"Hunk!! Drive fast, drive very, very fast!!"  
"What are you-?" Hunk began, before he was cut off by a crash from a nearby building.  
We all turned, to see a fairly large office block with a gaping hole in its mass, making the building look as if it had been hit by a cruise missile. Bits of debris were littered around its concrete and glass structure - and then there was another crash which billowed dust out onto the street, and send pieces of rubble and glass flying through the air.  
Almost choking on the dust, we looked up to see the demonic, but horribly familiar figure of a Tyrant. It was a perfected Tyrant, a variation on the version I'd met in one last-ditch battle in Raccoon City. Its huge and muscular body was coloured dull grey, but its skin darker around the chest area where the skin was thicker. Pulsing beneath that was its evil heart, its face a mask of malevolence.   
It threw back its head and two huge claws, and roared its terrible war cry...and charged.   
"GO! GO!!" Claire yelled as the creature charged us.  
Hunk needed very little prompting, he smashed his foot down on the pedal, and the tyres screamed in protest as Hunk forced the jeep into motion.  
The Tyrant chased just behind us, it was amazingly fast, its quick and nimble steps almost a mockery of its enormous form. I heard the engine roar as Hunk sped the jeep ever faster, but with every screeching roar, the Tyrant got closer.  
"IT'S CATCHING UP HUNK!! GO FASTER GODDAMNIT!!"   
"USE THE FRIGGING ROCKET LAUNCHER!!!" Hunk screamed as he forced the jeep to go faster. Not long before we hit maximum speed, I thought, as the wind rushed past me in a gale.  
Claire grabbed the rocket launcher  
I watched the Tyrant in a combination of awe and horror - So fast!  
When I snapped out of it, I was aware it was getting closer, so I propped up the heavy-machine gun.  
"Okay..." Claire aimed very carefully, balancing the rocket launcher on her shoulder "Just a little closer, my friend..."  
Suddenly, the gradient of the road changed and we were suddenly going up a slope.  
I saw Claire visibly wince.  
"Gah! Lost the damned aim!"  
The Tyrant followed us effortlessly, charging up the slope with its thundering bounds.  
It swiped with its hand, its claws whistling through the air, missing my skin by millimetres.   
We edged back, and just as we thought the Tyrant would get the better of us, Hunk brought the wheel around so hard the jeep almost wiped out, but the screeching tyres obeyed us again, and despite the scream of protest from the burning rubber, Hunk took us around a sharp right angle successfully, the jeep balancing neatly on two wheels at an angle before thumping down onto all four wheels once again. It was a good move, but Claire and I had nearly fallen totally out of the jeep.  
"You're out of your mind!!" I yelled at Hunk as he sped us off down the road, the Tyrant still in pursuit but somewhat further away as Claire fumbled with the launcher.  
"Instead of losing it with me, I suggest you work out how to fire the damned Rocket Launcher!!" Hunk angrily shot back.  
Claire glared at our maniac driver, and aimed carefully at the Tyrant.  
"He's in my sights...it's looking good...FIRING!"  
There was a whoosh of air as a rocket hawked out of the launch tube, and sped off towards the Tyrant leaving a white smoke vapour trail behind. The rocket thudded into the Tyrant's head, and in a deafening explosion disintegrated its skull in a flurry of gore.  
"YES!!" Claire cheered.  
"Great shot!!" I was grinning like a madman, and kissed her forcefully on the lips as she lowered the launcher.  
There was another deep rumble as we drove along the inner city bridge - We suddenly remembered there had been three canisters of the same size...  
"Oh shit" I muttered, as the entire bridge shook. Suddenly, as if we were experiencing our own private earthquake, the ground split open, pieces of tarmac crumbling to the open gap below as the hole became wider like a fatal wound.  
Hunk swerved sharply to the left, and managed to get past the crack just as it tore open underneath the tyres. As we drew clear of the crack, I looked back. A huge, lethal looking clawed hand, spikes glistening orange in the heat of the fires down below thudded up onto the road way, and then a second Tyrant, identical to the first leapt onto the road, crouching as it landed. Then, with one deafening scream, it rose up and the creature charged us.  
Unnerved by the second Tyrant that was rapidly gaining on us one again, Claire raised the rocket launcher again...and fired.  
Her aim had been affected by the appearance of the second Tyrant, the rocket streaked wide of the Tyrant and smashed into a building standing by the raised roadway, the explosion tearing a decent sized hole in the office building. But this wasn't the focus of our attentions, as Claire reloaded the rocket launcher and, hands shaking, tried again.   
"Damn!!" she cried out as the rocket missed the creature's head by inches and shot off into the distance.   
She was about to fire again, when I grasped her arm.  
"No, don't fire again - There may be a third one coming, so we'd better save any ammo we've got"  
"But I can hit it!" she insisted.  
"I didn't say you couldn't, my love" I said softly "But we're low on ammunition - So save it until the shot's a certain hit"   
She looked as if she was about to argue, but then she thought better of it.   
"Okay" she said, nodding "Let's wait 'til he's really close, huh?"  
She grinned, and I grinned back.  
"Okay, we're coming off the roadway!!" Hunk yelled back "We're taking another little detour!!!" he sounded almost euphoric during the second part of his sentence.  
Claire and I exchanged glances again.  
"What does he mean a little detour-AAAAH!" I was cut off by the fact the jeep was crashing through barriers and cones, which were either knocked to either side or sucked underneath the car, before another sign loomed up before us:  
  
WARNING: BRIDGE INCOMPLETE  
  
"Oh f-" I began, but never finished. It's probably just as well.   
The jeep's tyres were suddenly gripping thin air, as the vehicle leapt off part of the incomplete roadway, and for a moment hung in the air before with a spine juddering jolt and screech of metal we landed back on the road below. Grasping onto the side of the jeep, both Claire and I turned to glare at Hunk.  
"What exactly was preventing us from using the COMPLETE road?!!" Claire yelled at our driver.   
"You want that thing following our most predictable route?!" Hunk yelled back.   
I turned back, only to see that the Tyrant had leapt down after us, and was now hammering down the road to catch its prey.  
"Hasn't exactly stopped it!" I called back.   
I saw Hunk shift in his seat for a moment, mutter something under his breath that sounded vaguely like 'Oh Shit' before I felt the jeep go faster, the engine getting louder than ever.  
Then, as we drove furiously onwards, there was the agonised screeching of metal, and as one we turned to see a burning, wrecked truck moving slightly, before it was thrown completely to one side.  
I felt something in my stomach buckle and go limp as the third Tyrant, skin laced with flames thrust its left claw into the air, screaming in a war cry.  
"TWO of them?" Claire moaned "This just makes the picture perfect!"  
The thing lunged for us, its giant claw scraping the ground literally inches from the car, but Hunk expertly edged the car away from the Tyrant's huge claw and we shot past the enormous creature, which then turned to us. Suddenly, there was another roar as the other Tyrant leapt into the air, and, our eyes following its trajectory, it landed right in front of us on both feet, without a single wobble.   
There would have been nothing to prevent it bringing its claw down to skewer us on its giant claw. Right there and then, we could have bidden the long so-long. But something changed its mind.  
That something was the third Tyrant, who was not at all pleased that another of its kind had tried to move in on its selected prey.  
With another war cry, the third Tyrant charged the second Tyrant. As we looked up, the jeep going straight past the legs of the second creature as Hunk took opportunity of the distracted Tyrant, and as we looked on the 3rd Tyrant leapt at our original pursuer, and with one single powerful motion thrust its enormous clump of claws into the other Tyrant, which screamed as the spikes smashed through its back and blood splurted out in scarlet fountains, before the third Tyrant raised its identical twin up into the air, and hurled it into a nearby building with a crash of masonry.  
"Damn, that was close..." I muttered, watching the gory scene.  
"Could get closer" Claire pointed out, as the third Tyrant gave chase.  
So it was down to this. I could hear zombies lurching by the road - And I wasn't surprised that I couldn't hear any Hunters, any Tyrant could swat the Hunters to one side as if they were flies.  
Claire's faced hardened, and as the creature got closer and closer, I could see her grip the Rocket launcher, steady as a rock.  
She raised it calmly onto her shoulder, and I could see her count down, hear her deep breaths.  
There was a click - and then a missile streaked from the launcher as Claire fired, and it hit the Tyrant full on!  
The explosion obliterated its body in a moment, the fire disintegrating skin, flesh and bone in a bloody explosion that tore its limbs from its body.  
Claire dropped the launcher on the back of the jeep, and collapsed backwards, sighing loudly.  
"Well done!!" I said putting my arm around her.  
"I really wish..." she said, softly "...That I could just sleep"  
"Me too"   
I agreed with her totally, I was tired at the moment and really just wanted to relax - We knew the night was FAR from over. Umbrella was still around - we wanted to know why.  
  
SHERRY  
  
Ain't nowhere to run  
  
"STAY BACK, DAMN IT!!"   
Chris was screaming, unloading that deafening shotgun of his into the zombies forcing their way through the door, hinges squeaking badly as the moaning hordes outside the door smashed their hands through the wooden door, rotting, decaying hands reaching for us.  
I may be a thirteen year old, but if you'd seen all the stuff we'd seen, you'd be terrified too. My nerves, ever since that day a few years ago, are endlessly stretched to snapping point - Unless I'm with my brother, Leon, and his wife and my good friend, Claire.  
Chris too was a nice guy - But he seemed a little more dismissive of me than the other two were, so that was why I stuck with Claire and Leon more than the others.  
Jill? Well...she seemed sweet and all, but I hardly felt like her first concern. Rebecca's nice, but a little patronising at times. I never really spoke to Barry, but when we did, he was a really nice guy, always smiling and being encouraging. I guess that all boils down to him having daughters of his own.  
The door was bursting at the seams, the insistent moaning seeming closer and closer to us. Chris's shotgun was blasting through the doorway, blood dripping down the holes that Chris made (in the door and zombies).  
We were walking further back, I was chewing on my hand, incredibly afraid.   
"Chris? W-w-where are we gonna go?"  
He turned to me.  
"Is there a fire exit?"  
I turned towards the windows, outside I could indeed see a metal frame clinging to the building like a parasite.  
"Yeah...Do you want me to smash the window?"  
Okay, so it involves vandalism - But you don't really care when you're on the verge of being eaten by hordes of vicious flesh eating monsters.  
"Please!" Chris called, firing again.  
I nodded, and ran to find something that could smash the window. A chair? I picked up one of the heavy wooden chairs, and just holding it - I brought it hard against the window. There was a dull thud. Nothing.  
I hit it again. There was a dull crack. I looked closely at the window, and saw a small crack in it...maybe a couple more times...I smacked it again, and again and again. The cracks became larger and larger. By the, my arms were getting tired - So I kicked the window as hard as I could, and it just fell around my leg, which I drew back quickly to avoid having my leg sliced open by shards of glass.  
"Chris! Quick!"  
He nodded, and pushed me out onto the metal structure, into the fresh air and rain.  
"Ladies first!" he said.   
I ran to the escape ladder that was still slotted into place.  
How to release it?   
I climbed onto the ladder to find the release catch or whatever. Yeah, I'd been to fire drills, but like every schoolboy and schoolgirl, I'd spent more time knowing that I'd never be trapped in a flaming building.  
The irony was horrible to realise.  
There's GOT to be some kind pf release catch here...  
There was a creak...  
Then, suddenly I found myself moving downwards very quickly, clinging to the metal ladder as it shot down. There was a clank and a jolt as I found myself a few inches above the sidewalk.  
"Well, I've found the way down!" I called up.  
"Look out below!" I heard Chris call, and I stepped back as Chris slid down the ladder in that way they always do in action movies.  
There were moans from all around us.  
"I think..." Chris said, grabbing my arm and practically dragging me off down the road "...That we'd better get out of here - and pronto"  
"Where to? And what about Claire and Leon?"   
He appeared to ponder this as he pulled me onwards.  
"I'll give them a buzz on the radio"  
I eyed him suspiciously.   
"You've got a radio?"   
He nodded.  
"Never leave home without it - I just hope Claire remembers that she's got one"  
He raised up his radio, and listened for a second. Then, he winced.  
"What?" I asked.  
"Bad reception" he explained "We're going to have to get up higher"  
We ran down the street, Chris unloading his weapon into all manner of undead creatures moaning towards us - When to my surprise, one of these green things...Hunters, I think they're called...leapt out from a window above us, right in front of Chris, and let off one of those horrible inhuman screeches, before it crouched into an attack position. Chris was quicker than them, and with two deafening booms that left my ears rattling, he blasted it to smithereens.  
"What the hell are hunters doing here?" I heard Chris say.  
As we ran on further, I heard more of those screeches - More hunters.  
Nowhere to run, Sherry I found myself thinking Your luck has run out...  
"Hey" Chris turned to me "Want to take a cable car ride?"  
I looked at Chris as if he'd suggested a romantic trip.  
"I...I'm sorry?"  
"A Cable-Car ride? So we can go up?!" his voice was becoming more urgent.  
Suddenly it clicked.  
"OH! Right!"   
He grabbed my hand, and steered us to the left - where a cable-car station stood, the stone walls gothic and unwelcome, blood streaking its walls as well as small amounts of multi-coloured graffiti that adorned the corners of the building. A cable-car stood on one side of one of its platforms, swinging eerily in the wind. I didn't like the look of it.  
Stop being such a wimp I told myself, scornfully it's just a Cable-Car station!   
"Come on! Let's go!" Chris said, and we both ran up into the station, pushing open its wooden double doors. The smell of polish and blood smacked into us - It made me feel mildly nauseous.   
It was also unnaturally cold in the station, I shivered, despite the rain and wind outside.   
Inside, the station was larger than it seemed to be on the outside. Some ticket queue points, a photo booth, a central clock - No different to your average train or cable-car station. Okay, so streaks of blood on the floor are never there, and lurching zombies standing drunkenly in the queue lanes aren't either...  
"Maybe we can avoid them if we go past them..."  
"Uh...That's what everybody in horror movies say, and they never survive" I whispered.  
"What do you suggest?" he snapped "Asking them kindly not to attack us? There are twenty of them you know!"  
So I was forced to tiptoe with Chris across the hall. Thankfully, the zombies were all involved in their own meals, which were other zombies.   
We kept to the walls, and tiptoed along it. We were nearly home and free, none of the zombies had noticed us yet...  
"Seems like they're too wrapped up in their own business to notice us" Chris whispered as we sneaked past the photo booth...When in a blue of movement that made my heart leap into my mouth, something lurched out of the photo booth at Chris. It moaned. A zombie. Greyish drool leaked out of its rotting mouth as it tried to chow down on Chris's neck.  
Thankfully, Chris noticed. He yelped in surprise and stuck the shotgun into the creature's mouth.  
"Lesson of war. Never sneak up on Chris Redfield when he's got a loaded gun" Chris hissed, before pulling the trigger which not only obliterated the creature's head in an explosion of gore but also sent its body staggering back into the booth from where it had come.  
I felt mildly sick at the blood that had sprayed onto my jeans.  
"Yuck" I said, wrinkling my nose at the stinking blood.  
"That's why I'd survive the movies" Chris said, grinning "Because I carry a very big gun"  
"Uh...Can we get our cable car ride now? I think we've lost the element of surprise"  
Chris turned, and saw what I saw.  
"Oh shit"  
We'd attracted 'attention' from the twenty odd zombies in the station.  
"This is where we RUN!!!" Chris yelled, and we both hammered off towards the exit onto the platform.   
We heard the moaning behind us as Chris bashed open the doors, and we skidded out onto the concrete platform.   
"Into the drivers section! Now!"  
Chris yanked open the door (which was unlocked) and we bundled in.  
The control panel was fairly bog standard, and it took only a few moments for Chris to activate the panel. There was a low hum - and then the Cable-car jolted into life, and with a screech the Cable-car started its unsteady way up its metal cable.  
"Where does it go?" I asked.  
"Does it matter?" Chris replied.  
"Well it'd be helpful if Leon and Claire knew where we were going!"  
"I'll call 'em when we're high enough! Patience is a virtue, kid!"  
"Yeah, but...patience could also get you killed"  
He glared at me, and then sat down on the floor, breathing heavily.  
"Well...at least we're away" he said, looking up at me, and I sat down too.  
"Right"  
  
We were endlessly going up, the sensation of the swaying cable-car was not making me feel any better than I already felt.  
Up and up and up.  
My eyes scanned the ceiling and those adverts on the wall. Then, the map detailing our route caught my eye.  
Main station, Intersection 1, Northern Heights...Northern heights?  
I stood up, and clinging to the wall, I walked up to the map on the wall. It was yellow, and had a vulgar cartoon drawn in marker pen on it.  
I looked at the position of Northern Heights on the map. About a mile from the mountains.  
The mountains.  
"Chris!" I called to him "Don't want to worry you, but how high exactly were you intending to go?"  
"High enough, why do you ask?"  
"Because" I said "If you don't know how to stop this thing, we're going to keep going up into the mountains"  
He leapt up, and ran over to the map, scanning it for confirmation.   
"Do you know how to stop it?"  
"Hit the brake of course!" he said, and ran through to the cockpit.  
There was a hollow click.  
"Oh...you are KIDDING ME!!!" I heard him yell "You are...WHY DOESN'T ANY TRANSPORTATION IN ANY TOWN I GO TO HAVE BRAKES THAT GODDAMN-WELL WORK??!!!" he ran into the main car, only to look at the map.   
"What the...Ah SHIT!"  
The only thing more worrying than his filthy mouth was the predicament we were now in.  
"According to this" Chris said, drawing his finger down the map "We've got about seven miles to the mountains...This thing ain't moving too fast, but we'll hit the end of the line within half an hour"  
I looked up at him, a little stricken.  
"And then....?"  
"Then..." Chris looked a little pained "...we'll crash. And when you're two thousand feet up? That isn't the best idea in the world"  
"So, how do we stop it?" I asked.  
"Well, providing we act quick we can find the emergency brake - The one in the cockpit doesn't work, so we'll..." he looked as if he was trying to work it out, and then ran into the cab. I ran in after him, only to see him flick through the technical manual for the cable-car.   
I heard him mutter softly, and then he stabbed the book.  
"There. That's what we want!"   
"What is it?" I looked over his arm (he's a damn tall guy!)  
"One of the newest features is this emergency brake on the connector between the wire and the cable-car so that in case any of the manual brakes fail, then the central control office can stop the car as a last resort - However, it's also got a manual mode. If we can get on the top and hit it, then the car will stop"  
I looked up at him.  
"You sure this'll work?"  
"Of course I'm not sure"   
I sighed.  
"Chris, one of the qualities Claire has that you're lacking is the fact that she makes everything sound better"  
I wasn't usually the one to like events being glossed over, but I didn't want to become any more insecure than I already was.  
"Well I'm SO sorry" he replied sarcastically.  
"No problem - Who's going to go on the roof"  
Chris looked at me.  
"I am" he said "You are not going to get yourself killed by doing anything stupid"  
"Chris...I'm small, and I'm light! Think about it, it's physically more feasible!"   
"Sherry - No way!" he said, sternly "I don't want to lose you - and Claire & Leon would kill me if you fell off the roof!"  
"Then just tell them what I've told you!"  
"And they'd believe me?!"  
He sighed, and sagged.  
"Just promise that if anything goes wrong..." he whispered "...Then you'll come down"  
I nodded.   
  
Chris tied the rope tightly around my waist. He'd kept the rope slung around his shoulder through our entire escapade since leaving Hotel Paradis, and now he had a use for it.  
"If I even see you slip, I'll grip this harder than a vice, right?"   
I smiled, nodding.  
We were fast approaching intersection 1, and as Chris opened the door, I felt a blast of stinging air as the station of Intersection 1 shot past, and I was aware that only a few inches separated me from falling a thousand feet to my death. At least it seemed to me like a thousand feet. Its depth was something different probably.  
I was suddenly very afraid.   
I gulped, and climbed outside, clinging to the metal rungs on the side that engineers' used to get onto the roof with. A single mistake...  
I knew that the most stupid thing I could do was LOOK DOWN...  
I hauled myself up, rung by rung, not thinking about the drop below.  
I knew that the wind was strong, and the air was making me light headed too - forcing me to breathe very deeply for air. As I climbed onto the smooth metal roof, I suddenly found myself clinging to the roof, unable to move.  
I was terrified of my position - High winds, moving cable-car - I wanted desperately to climb back down, to let Chris do it...  
No I thought stubbornly You CAN do this, just gotta crawl over to that brake...that's all you need to do...   
I shinned across the cold metal roof, towards the brake.  
Not far to go, not far...  
I was practically right next to the thing, the small metal device on one of the enormous clips...  
I grabbed it, and hung on. Chris gave me more slack on the rope, and I looked at the metal device. Chris hadn't actually told me HOW to activate the emergency brake...but it wouldn't take much to guess it.  
It had a dirty green button and a dirty red button hidden in a recess in the device.  
Probably the red button...  
"Now!!" I heard Chris yell, "We're coming up to Northern Heights!"  
I thumped the red button.  
There was a screeching, and the brakes clamped down on the wires. The screeching of sparks took me by surprise, and I found myself sliding towards the edge of the roof, and suddenly I was over the edge, and screaming.  
Then, the rope furiously jerked as Chris grabbed the rope tight.  
"Okay..." he whispered, "I've gotcha"  
I smiled softly up at him as he reeled me in, and pulled me into the cable-car.  
I hugged him hard.  
"Thank you! Thank you!" I said, practically in tears.  
"Hey...don't worry, you're alright now!" he said, a little bewildered - I knew from this that he had absolutely no skill at all with children - but I didn't care. He'd saved my life, which was the important thing.   
I felt the cable-car slow and then stop.  
Chris exhaled.  
"Whoa...that was close"  
He stood up, still holding my arm, and then slide open the doors. We were right in front of the platform.  
We stepped off, and I was glad that we were on solid ground once again.  
The station was distinctly more modern than the other; it was a concrete structure with some pretty architecture to make it look more appealing to tourists. There didn't appear to be a soul, living or other, in sight.  
Chris drew out his radio.  
"Good reception now...Okay, I'll try to contact them from here"  
He spoke into it.  
"Claire, you there?"  
There was a crackle, and then the tinny voice of Claire answered him.  
"I'm here Chris"  
"Claire, we've been forced to move home - don't got to the hotel, it crawls"  
"Hey! Waitasec, where are you?"  
"We're up at Northern Heights cable-car station - and we can wait here for you"  
There was a voice in the background that sounded like Leon's, which gave me a boost inside.  
I also heard another male voice say 'Hey! That's about ten miles from here! Just great!'   
"I won't even bother asking how you got up there" I heard Claire say.   
"We'll meet you both up here, okay? - Over and out" Chris said, clicking off the radio, before turning to me, smiling.  
"We may have to wait here for a while" he said.  
"Fine by me" I said "As long as there's no zombies around, I'm not bothered!"  
We went inside the station. It was indeed deserted. There was also a canteen.  
"Well" Chris said jokingly, patting me on the shoulder "At least we can 'survive' a little longer"  
I rolled my eyes.  
"What flavours of ice cream are there?"  
  
LEON  
  
Breaking the speed limit without getting a ticket  
  
Claire put down the radio  
"Change of plan people"  
I nodded. Hunk had stopped the jeep for a few minutes, the engine needed to cool and in the alley we seemed pretty safe from zombies and hunters alike.  
"Northern Heights? Is that the place?" I asked.  
"I think so. At least that's what he said"  
We looked at Hunk, who looked a little concerned, his frowning face indicating bad news for all of us.  
"What is it Hunk?" I asked, sternly "What's up there that should worry us?"  
"Northern Heights..." he began "...Is the UOZ"  
"UOZ?" Claire asked, incredulously.  
"Umbrella Occupied Zone" Hunk explained "It's where our Commander's set up their command post so that they can have an operations zone for this 'Operation: Omega - I was just told to report there once my mission is complete"  
"Right" I folded my arms "You've got away with so much - Now I want to know; What is Umbrella's interest in Burkitt? How could they have prepped you for such a mission when nobody outside of the town knew about the outbreak in the city?"   
Hunk sighed, and bowed his head slightly.  
"Guess there's no point denying that I do know something - The fact is that I heard the supervisors say something about the main Bioject offices being in Burkitt - but apart from that, I'm not lying when I say that I was sent here to rescue civilians"   
We both glared at him.  
"So am I right when I say that Chris and Sherry are, potentially, in very deep trouble?!" Claire asked, angrily.  
"Okay!" Hunk's earlier humour had evaporated completely, and he was now looking pretty miserable "Lay it all on me! I'm an employee of Umbrella, so what? Doesn't make me a monster! They tell me what to do and I do it, I never know why they want me to do it or what they're going to do with whatever I've done afterwards"  
"Anything else you want to tell us?"  
"Right!" Hunk stood up straight "Better come clean with it - I know that you were in Raccoon City more than a year ago, that night of September 29th - I was there the night before, on a mission"  
We stood, stunned at this revelation. Hunk continued, oblivious.  
"My mission was to grab the G-Virus, I was there with another small squad when William Birkin transformed. I was the ONLY survivor of both teams. There we are...I've confessed, you gonna kill me now?"  
We looked at him, still gawping.   
He was there too?  
"You knew about the G-Virus?" Claire asked softly.  
"Of course I didn't!" Hunk snapped "If I knew what the hell it did, I don't think I'd have been so positive about taking the damned thing!"   
We were silent again, just standing before Hunk.  
"Jesus, do you have to keep me waiting?!" he cried "Are you going to shoot me or not?!"  
"No" I said "We're not going to kill you - We'd be no worse than your employers if we did"   
He looked me in the eyes.  
"Mercy?" he said, raising an eyebrow "You sure you want to take that risk? I thought I was the 'traitor'!"  
"Damn it!!" Claire snapped "Look, we couldn't care what your past is all about, all that matters is that my brother and a little girl are in danger!! Providing we can rely on you not to point a gun at our heads when the times comes, then I think we could just get on!! Okay?!"  
She then shook her head, softly.  
"Bioject..." Claire said, realising at the same time as me "...A T-Virus outbreak in the town where Umbrella's arch rivals have a home-base? More than a slight coincidence"  
"Right" I said "So whatever Operation Omega entails, it obviously involves the destruction of Bioject - so I don't think it had anything to do with us"  
Hunk folded his arms.  
"Let's get going" Hunk said "If there's some kind of destiny I got ahead then I don't want to miss it - We've gotta face what we gotta face, right?"  
I nodded, silently.  
Leaping into the driver's seat, the now stone-faced Hunk thumbed us to get in the back.   
We leapt in, not uttering a word. The tyres screeched, and Hunk accelerated the car out of the alley.   
"Okay" he said, revving the car up towards top speed "Destiny's out there and it ain't taking prisoners. Hold on tight"   
"What's his thing with destiny?" Claire muttered as the jeep sped off down the road, to the accompaniment of various squishing sounds as the jeep smashed through a line of zombies.  
There was a chorus of inhuman screeching, the characteristic war cry of the hunter.   
I checked my magnum. Fully loaded. Claire checked her shotgun.  
"Got about forty rounds, maybe a bit more" she reported.  
"Well I got plenty of magnum rounds, and we got the rocket launcher and the heavy-machine gun"  
"Let's save the rocket launcher - Never know when you'll need it"  
"Okay, so let's just use the big-gun to get up to Northern Heights, and after that - We sneak it through, and then make contact with Chris and Sherry"  
Claire looked at me, and raised an eyebrow.  
"Planned this quite well, haven't you?"  
"Yeah" I grinned "That's me right down to the ground"  
There was a bump as Hunk took us over a speed-bump.  
I looked across to the horizon, my wet hair plastering my forehead for just a moment before Claire brushed it away.  
"Leon" she said, softly "You won't get yourself killed, now will you?"  
"Of course not!"   
"Leon" she said quietly "Promise me..."  
I turned to her, stroking her glistening wet hair.  
"I promise I will survive"  
She nodded, smiling.  
"Good"  
I looked up at an illuminated sign as we drove up the two-lane road that went steadily upwards. The sign was blue, with white letters - It read: NORTHERN HEIGHTS 10 miles.  
"Not far" I said, leaning back, loading the machine-gun "Not far now"  
There was a screech from the road, and we turned to see two hunters charging after us, sharp claws clicking on the tarmac as the creatures chased us.  
"You know..." Claire said, loading her shotgun and aiming it "...It makes you wonder if these things ever learn"  
"Don't think so" I said, propping up the heavy machine gun.  
I suddenly remembered how strong the kick was as I fired it, the weapon sprayed death into the road which the Hunters charged straight into, the bullets ripping into their flesh and then hurling them back into puddles of their own blood on the road.  
I blew down the barrel, as if I was the man with no name.  
"Nice one Clint" Claire joked.  
"Do you feel lucky, punk?" I said, as deeply as I could manage.  
She laughed, and rolled her eyes.   
"As long as your shooting's better than your Clint Eastwood impression, I think we're home and free"  
I grinned, and ran my finger up her back, and she shivered.   
"Eek! That felt weird"   
I put my arm around her, and we watched the dead town of Burkitt slip away beneath us, as we drove up the empty road.  
I didn't know what awaited me. Somehow, I couldn't help feeling that if we got through this, there would be a sense of achievement in itself.  
"Could this be the last journey?" Claire whispered "The last time we'll have to do this?"  
"Somehow..." I said looking at her "...I don't think it'll be the last time"  
Look out Umbrella.  
The end is nigh.  
  
END OF PART THREE  
  
The fourth and final part is coming soon!!!  



	4. PART 4

This is a restricted area  
  
How to begin? It seems so irrelevant to recall every single moment of that car ride up, to recall how many times Claire and I whispered to each other, to recall how silent Hunk stayed during the whole journey.   
All I remember was having just one conversation with Hunk.  
I edged towards the cab, where he drove, eyes alert and on the road ahead.  
"You got anybody?" I asked, suddenly.  
"Mm?" was the grunted reply.  
"Got anybody? A girl?"   
His face softened a little.  
"Yeah...A wife, and a little girl"  
"Sounds nice" I said.  
"It is" he said, still staring at the road "We live in this beautiful little house outside LA..." he seemed to drift off into nostalgia "...When I'm not working, I'm always there. I go home, kiss my wife, hug my four-year old girl...I throw a steak or two on the barbecue...Yeah, life's good when I don't have to work"  
"Don't you like your work?"   
He shrugged.  
"The hours stink, but the pay's good"  
"Do your family know what you do?"  
"They know what my job is - What I do is another matter entirely"  
I nodded.  
"I'd love to have a home life like yours - Two kids, a beautiful wife but no damned time to sit at home and have a meal - God I'd love that"  
"When you get round to it..." he said, smiling "You will love it - I promise you"  
"Ever doubt your employers? I mean - You've got morals, I can tell"  
"It's not my position really to doubt them. I do a job and they pay me. That's how I see it"  
"What if...Umbrella tried to endanger your family in some way"  
"Then I'd reconsider. But since my employers have given me no incentive to do so, then I just knuckle down and do my job"  
"You're aware of what the G-Virus does?" I asked, sternly "What it's capable of?"  
"No" he said, his voice hard "To me it's just some liquid in a glass vial - Nothing more"  
"Umbrella's viruses have killed thousands of people! Doesn't that mean anything to you?!"  
"Look" his voice rose "People are born, people die, that's how life works - If Umbrella choose to kill thousands of people, that's not my bag!"  
"Do you have any sense of humanity? Any sense of decency?" I asked, angrily.  
"Yes!!" he roared back "I do!! That's why I care for my family, why I live, why I am determined to stay alive!!"  
"Do you know that Umbrella will not forgive you for doing this?! For being anywhere near me?!"  
"Yes - I do!"  
"So why are you still-"  
"Survival is the key - You don't shoot your friends in the back when they've given you a hand"  
"But-"  
"Believe me, Umbrella wouldn't and couldn't kill me - I'm too valuable to their cause"  
I sighed, and leaned back a little.  
"If you're confident that'll happen, then so be it" I turned to him "But remember whom your real friends are when the time comes - This story hasn't got a moral, y'know. None of these stories have morals, but when you get right down to it - I guess the whole idea's just to live"   
He nodded. Whether or not he'd taken in my philosophy didn't matter. As I rolled back to where Claire sat, we both stared at the scenery rushing past us, the greenness appearing dark blue in the night.  
Then, it was cut away as a flaring series of lights came into our vision, almost blinding me, and I blinked a few times to recover my sight.   
"It looks like..." Claire whispered, as Hunk brought the vehicle along the ridge of the hill.  
"An army base, right" I replied, as we looked down on it.  
It must have been about two or three miles squared, surrounded by wire, and illuminated by spotlights. It was filled with concrete and pre-fabricated buildings, and there was even a large day-glow painted helipad for night landings. Lights on the edges flashed brightly, at intervals of approximately five seconds.   
The whole place managed to look very military and utilitarian - Yet very, very creepy.  
Was it the darkened roofs of the buildings? Or just the fact that it was almost silent, despite the fact there were fifty odd soldiers in the compound below - all of them very human and very alert.  
"Pretty well manned" Claire muttered.  
I looked across the base...over to a concrete building with various wire fences running alongside it. It was outside the bases walls, funnily enough...Come to think of it, it didn't share the same military feel as the rest of the buildings did...  
"The cable-car station" I whispered "That's where Sherry and Chris are"  
"Okay" Claire turned quickly to Hunk "Prepared to drive us over there?"  
"Haven't got that much of a choice have I?" he said, climbing into the jeep once again.  
I exchanged a glance with Claire.  
"I think we'd better be careful with him" I said, softly "Don't push him"  
She nodded.  
"Let's meet up with Sherry and Chris"  
We climbed into the back, and Hunk started the engine, driving at a fairly slow speed, headlights doused as we tried to keep a low profile. We were in a restricted area. One single mistake, and we'd be captured.  
I felt the truck rumble beneath me, the rhythm of its movement almost soothing as I pressed my cheek against it. I looked my wife, also lying down, straight in the eyes.  
Claire.  
My wife.  
Twenty-one.  
Very beautiful  
I smiled. She smiled back. I suddenly had a whole lot more confidence in our mission - We'd live.   
I lay there, soundlessly. Hopefully, it wouldn't take long to get to the station. Once we were there? We could get out. But...we couldn't go. The Umbrella conspiracy still lived on.  
We'd just have to see.   
"Uh...Tell me something" Hunk asked from the front "Are you two...married?"  
"Yeah" Claire and I said in unison "What's the interest?"  
"And you've got two kids, right?"  
"Uh-huh"  
"Just...wanted to know" he replied, softly, before turning back to the road again.  
Bit of a weird question, isn't it?  
It's more important later on. But now? Irrelevant. That's precisely what it is.  
  
When the rhythmic rumble of the engine had ceased, we presumed Hunk had reached the cable-car station.   
"Okay, we're here" Hunk said, softly.  
We slipped off the back of the truck, and onto the tarmac, boots clicking slightly on the wet ground.   
We walked around to where Hunk stood, and he waved at a building directly in front of us.  
"That's it" he said.  
The building was one of those concrete monstrosities whose art deco appeared to be '1960's concrete brick' style, applied to the whole building.  
There wasn't a single curved edge I could see, nearly everything was right-angles. Rain glistened in a street lamp, and we could also see quite clearly that the lights were on.   
"Hey..." Claire whispered, excited "Maybe Chris and Sherry are in there!"  
"Then let's not waste any time" I said, running up the steps towards the main entrance, Claire immediately by my side.  
I tried the doors. They were public-access doors, so of course they weren't locked. I pushed them inwards, and I was hit by a blast of cool air as I stepped inside, Claire and Hunk by my side.  
It was a fairly large multi-tasking hall with a black and white tiled floor, a few doors that led out onto the platform, a ticket office, a cafeteria with a few stools by it - and two very familiar figures sitting on the stools, one of them practically face first in a very large bowl of ice-cream.  
"Hey!" Chris called "Looks like you finally caught up!"   
"Looks like it, huh?" Claire said, wryly.   
Sherry looked up, smiling. For the first time in ages, she looked really happy, her lips smeared with various flavours of ice cream.   
"It's great!" she managed, her mouth half full "There's loads of ice cream here"  
I rolled my eyes, but I was smiling. It was good to see her in a good mood for a change.  
"Hey Sherry! Why don't you go and find us some ice cream or something?" Chris called to Sherry, who nodded and ran off into the kitchen.  
I was going to say I wasn't hungry, but Chris pulled Claire and me closer.   
"Look" he said softly "I didn't want to say this in front of Sherry, because I thought it might worry her...but I found this" he pulled out a piece of computer printout paper "I found a dead guard in the kitchen, got rid of the body...but this I think is what's going to get us moving"  
I looked at him oddly, and then at the paper.  
  
OPERATION OMEGA  
  
This plan is to be executed in the one week, so supervisors stay on your toes.  
  
1. The T-Virus will be introduced into the city of Burkitt at 0800 hours on the Friday, it should not take long before much of the population is zombified.   
PRIME TARGET: Bioject HQ  
  
2. Three rescue squads will be sent into act as decoys to the government - they will be 'rescuing civilians' so prime squads should avoid these squads at all costs. Deployment to the UOZ is essential. To assist your attack, many T-Creatures will be dropped onto the city to get rid of the Rescue Squads and other important (live) civilians who have got an idea as to what we are doing.  
  
3. This third phase will involve launching the T- Virus Chemical missiles at our primary targets: Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Berlin and Tokyo at 0420 hours on (the final) Saturday.  
  
4. Evacuation will commence promptly at 0430, since a nuclear missile is targeted to hit Burkitt at 0510.  
  
  
We looked at each other in absolute horror. So this was what they had been building up to. Infecting the worlds major cities with the T-Virus, the world would beg Umbrella to help because they'd claim to have 'a cure' and when the whole mess was over, guess who'd be sitting on top of the world with their dirty fat fingers in every governmental pie in the world. Umbrella would, of course. And who would be able to trace Umbrella's involvement in the infection? Nobody. Wiping out the town of Burkitt immediately after launching the T-Virus missiles would leave no trace - and their decoy of 'rescuing civilians' would certainly fool people. But who would be blamed? Who was the only pharmaceutical company in Raccoon with the capability of launching the missiles? Bioject, naturally. The plan was quite brilliant - But Umbrella obviously hadn't taken us into consideration.  
"I think" I said, through my teeth "That we've got to throw a spanner in the works"  
"Yeah" Claire agreed.   
"So I guess it's time to end this once and for all"   
  
Now we end this  
  
Chris and Sherry had been introduced to Hunk, although they treated him with more than a little suspicion, but I had to explain the situation to them fully before they were prepared to believe me.   
Hunk was still looking at the piece of paper as we walked out, shaking his head in absolute bewilderment.  
"Betrayed...by my employers...would you damn well believe it?!"  
"Yes" we said in unison. We knew what Umbrella were like.  
"Don't they have any human values?"   
"No"  
He looked at me, his face creased with worry.  
"Leon, my family is in LA"  
We all stopped, and looked at him. For the first time, this Umbrella employee was showing us that he was truly human. He was feeling what I had felt in Finzustown a few months ago - he was scared for his family. For his child. For his wife.   
"We'll stop the missiles" I said, reassuringly "Don't you worry - We've all got friends in these cities we want to save"  
"Then I think I'll help you" Hunk said, smiling. It was a casual, impish grin. Back to his old self.  
"Great" I said "So how do we get in?"  
Hunk walked across the road, and looked over the whole base. He appeared to be making some kinds of calculations.  
"Right" he said "They won't have bothered electrifying the fence for such a short term project - So that's an option"  
"Barbed wire, Mr. Hunk" Chris said "I think that's a slight problem"  
"Got any wire cutters?"  
"Oh yeah, that's the sort of stuff I carry around all the time" Chris said, sarcastically.   
Hunk narrowed his eyes.  
"Sarcasm is unnecessary" Hunk whispered.  
"Look, it's going to be a while before I can fully trust you" Chris stated, voice cold "So get used to it for now"  
"Chris!" Claire exclaimed, annoyed.  
Chris glared at Hunk, before stepping back.  
"Well, I've got some clipping tools that may work - It's part of my soldier kit, as it were"  
Hunk smiled, helpfully.  
"Fine. 'May' is better than 'Won't' in my book" I said, already turning to go.  
"Wait a minute!" Hunk called.   
I stopped, and turned back to him.  
He was looking seriously at me, as were the others. I felt like I was on an identity parade.  
"Inside's going to be pretty damn dangerous - You've got humans to fight, humans who have their own minds, and humans who have guns"  
"I know" I said, a little irritably. As if I hadn't prepared for that already!  
"And there's going to be some big cheeses from Umbrella there, probably those in charge of White Umbrella, the Bio-weapons division - So they've probably got their elite guards there"  
"Elite guards?" Claire asked.  
"Two mysterious characters" Hunk said, as if he was telling a ghost story "Nobody knows exactly where they came from, or who they are although it's rumoured they're brother and sister. They're the best - You look at the hi-scores in the Umbrella challenge lists - Guess who's at the top?"  
"Let me guess" Chris said, folding his arms "Those two?"  
"They call themselves JL and LJ, nobody knows which is which"  
"I see" I said "And they pose a danger, huh?"  
"There's no guarantee we'll meet them" he said "But be wary, for gods sake"  
I nodded, hurriedly.  
"Fine, fine, fine...Are we going?"  
  
I looked up the metal fence, at its glistening, twisted yet organised form, razor sharp twisted wire at the top of the fence.   
It was still raining, and we'd barely had time to dry in the Cable-car station before we were soaked again. I was hoping that I would die an old happy man, not of pneumonia. Well, as you can tell from the fact that I'm WRITING this, that I haven't done any of the two yet - So keep going, as did I.  
I hated climbing fences. I don't have any natural phobias - Apart from one. Vertigo. I hate heights, and even the smallest of heights, such as that fence, put me on edge. Pathetic isn't it? I've got no real problem with anything else, zombies and deserted, infested mental asylums - but I hate twenty-foot drops.  
I swallowed.   
"Going to climb the fence, Leon?" Chris asked.  
"Uh...yeah" I managed.  
Claire whispered something to Chris.  
"What...he's...." I heard Chris snigger "...But it's only twenty feet tall!"  
"Don't be unfair!" I heard Claire say annoyed "You're terrified of snakes"  
There was a snigger from Sherry.  
"Snakes..." Sherry giggled.  
"Well, they can be poisonous!" he snapped.  
I smiled to myself, and mounted the fence. I slowly but surely climbed up, my boots finding footholds in the chinks of the wire fence, staring upwards all the time. As I reached the top, I felt the wire scrape against my cheek. I winced.  
"Ah, Jeez!" I exclaimed.  
"You okay?" Claire called "I'm coming up with the pliers!"  
I clung to the fence, trying not to think that if I made even a slight wrong movement, I'd fall.   
Just don't think about it, Kennedy...  
Claire reached my side, and looked at me, smiling.  
"Just don't think about it"  
"I'm trying not to" I replied, smiling weakly.  
"Look, I'll do the cutting if you're not too happy with it-"  
"No" I interjected "I can do this"  
She handed me the pliers, and shakily, I reached up to cut the wire. I squeezed, and a strand came loose. After some work on it, as if it was a primrose bush that needed urgent trimming, I had finally cleared a space. I climbed over, and, face to face with Claire on the other side, smiled and thankfully climbed down.  
It didn't take long for all of us to be on the other side, although Sherry was nearly as bad as me. I wondered if Vertigo was also genetic.   
We were hidden behind a low concrete building in a pool of darkness, the whole area in front of us lit up like a football stadium.  
I could spot thirty odd guards out in the light, some standing to a rigid attention, others leaning against walls enjoying a cigarette.  
"Thirty just out there" I whispered "This is not going to be easy"  
"What we need" Claire replied "Is a distraction"  
"Using what?"  
Hunk straightened up, and handed me his gun.  
"Hey, what are you-?"  
"I'll distract them long enough for you to get to the main control building - Just make sure nobody gets to the alarms, lock the outer doors and you should be able to get up to the main control deck"  
Hunk bowed at us, all of us practically speechless, and he walked into the light, hands held high.  
We could hear the shouting of the protesting guards - which was all we needed as a signal. Slipping around the side of the building, we ran through the shadows cast by the series of prefabricated and concrete buildings set in organised grid squares - It was like a mathematicians dream.  
  
Hopefully, Hunk's 'distraction' would hold the guards for long enough so that we'd be able to get up to the command room where they were planning on launching the missiles. With only thirty-five minutes until launch we didn't have a lot of time.  
"HALT!!" I heard a voice yell. I turned my head, and saw two guards, dressed in black, chasing us down through the buildings.   
Damn!  
I could see the control building...not far...  
The gap between us and the building grew smaller and smaller...  
"DON'T MOVE!!"  
Two more black-clad soldiers leapt out in front of us, assault rifles poised, faces hidden by gas masks.  
Oh shit.  
I skidded to a stop, the others stopping too. We didn't even have time to pull our weapons out the guards roughly grabbed us and removed our weapons.  
"MOVE!" One said, jabbing me roughly in the back.  
"Make up your mind" Sherry muttered.  
We were pushed out into the blinding light, stinging my eyes like two suns were targeting me specifically, and I raised my arm to shield myself from their glare. I staggered across the wet ground, as if I was just learning to walk again, but it was mainly because of the blow I'd been delivered by the Umbrella soldier.   
I flopped onto the ground, Claire landing beside me. I pushed my hands against the concrete ground, and forced myself into an upright position.   
Used to the light now, I sat on my knees as if I was a prisoner-of-war awaiting that gunshot to the head to end my misery and life.  
I heard a clicking, it sounded like somebody was drumming quite slowly but rhythmically on the concrete - I looked up, and saw two men in suits, accompanied by two black figures, like angels of death, their faces shrouded by black gas-masks.  
They also carried MP5's.  
I swallowed, trying not to think of what they had in mind for us.  
Gunshot? Perhaps, or maybe they want us to suffer a little first...  
The latter was the true one.  
The two suited men stood overlooking us, grey and black hair sprinkling the head of the first one, a man who looked slightly more kindly than the other man, who looked like a predatory reptile. The second man had thicker, black hair, and his mouth was twisted with an amused malevolence, while the first man just looked bemused.   
They both stood straight, showing no signs of physical deterioration at all - Their two soldiers watching over them, silently.  
The first of the suits spoke first, with a strong thespian voice.  
"Well, well, well! It's our rebels - At last in front of those they are attempting to destroy"  
They were unflinching, looking down on us.  
"We were thinking of destroying you too" the second man said, in a razor sharp voice that sounded like he'd been eating gravel for a large portion of his life.  
"What denied you the pleasure?" I said, sarcastically.  
"We've decided on a fate worse than death" the first man replied, without a twinge of annoyance "It's living"  
"How terrible" Chris added, equally sarcastic as me.  
"Living with the truth"  
We all looked at each other.  
"What truth?"  
"It's bad, very bad" the second man said.  
"Please, stand up" the first man suddenly interjected "I hate trying to talk to people when it's not a face to face talk"  
Prompted by the soldiers, we stood up, like schoolchildren being taught how to leave class.  
"Do you know that ignorance really is bliss?" the second man said "It really is good not to know some things - Then we earthlings can get on blissfully unaware of the horror that surrounds us"  
"I'm afraid your punishment for doing what you have done is to know exactly how you are all involved in Umbrella in some ways - It's soul destroying material" the other man said, as if he was enjoying the whole fiasco.  
There was a sudden burst of gunfire, and we all turned to see soldiers running in the direction of the command building, a few screaming as they were cut down by a mysterious killer from the darkness.  
Just for a moment, hope flared inside me - before the gunfire was cut off by a soft thump, indicating that the assailant had been delivered a blow from behind.   
Our last hope died with the sound.   
A few guards called "WE GOT HER!!"  
"Bring her here" one of the suited men ordered.  
Her?  
We turned to where the soldiers were dragging out the attacker, a very familiar, short-haired strong spirited lady who was infatuated with a certain person not far away. It was-  
"Jill?!" Chris asked, astonished.   
For it was. She was dumped unceremoniously by my side, wincing and rubbing her head.  
"Jill, what are you doing here?"  
"Saving your asses" she replied "I knew this was where you'd gone, and I figured I could find you right where Umbrella were positioned"  
"One, how did you get here and two, how did you know Umbrella were here?" Claire asked the questions we all wanted to ask.  
"One, I drove in from the other side of town, but how I got here is pretty irrelevant. Two, that friend of yours...Stan, isn't it Chris?"  
Chris nodded.  
"Well he called to say he wanted me to deliver some new info he'd discovered - Something about an Operation Omega?"  
Chris rolled his eyes.  
"Great timing Stan" I heard him mutter.  
"Enough" the second suited man said, sternly "I think you've chatted enough. In fact, it's probably just as well Ms. Valentine dropped in for our little talk"  
"Why?" I asked, sourly.  
"Because it's necessary" he said. There was a pause, and then he smiled "Where shall we begin?"  
"I know - Let's tell them 'the plot'" the first man said, a little excited.  
"Very well" the second man kept his distance as he walked up and down. He then began the most incredible, horrible and heart-breaking story of betrayal and lies that I'd ever heard. I share it with you now.  
  
The Last Revelation  
"The ultimate irony" the second man said, smiling nastily "Is that White Umbrella is something you are all involved in and yet - here you are trying to destroy it. If it wasn't for us, you wouldn't even be here"  
"What the hell are you talking about?" I said, coldly.  
"Our operations centre around two things - One, our bio-weapons research, which is the largest part. The second part is the maintaining our genetic research"  
"Maintaining genetic research?" Claire asked.  
"Exactly. You see, we've known how to clone human beings for over fifteen years, and how to download data into the brain for about five or six"  
We were all equally shocked.   
"Clones?" Jill asked, eyes narrowing.  
"Yes" the second man said "Human clones, perfect in every detail to their original, identical abilities and guaranteed to hate their original for merely being them. I think it was fourteen odd years ago, we learned how to accelerate the growth of a clone through its incubation period, and how it could then be slowed when it finally reached the right age. Dr. William Birkin, your father Leon" he indicated me. I bit my lip, trying not to swear at him "Was worried about anything that should endanger his son and daughter's lives. So he requested that they had copies created of them, genetically identical people who could grow up like his children would if they were ever hurt. It was a personal request, which White Umbrella would not normally have accepted, but since they needed to try out their mew found technology for real anyway, they said yes"  
I was reeling. A clone. An identical copy of me? Where was he? If so...could we meet up? Would it be possible for us to sit down and have a talk...maybe even...  
Suddenly, something else interrupted my train of thought.  
"Wait a moment...you said sister...but fourteen years ago Sherry wasn't born!"  
The second man laughed loudly, a nasty, amused laugh that rolled into the night sky.  
"Oh! Of course! You don't know!"   
"Another sister?" Chris asked, confused.  
"A twin to be precise - Nobody really knew about her, since it was commonly held that Birkin only had a son and daughter. Yes, they did know about you Leon" the man was picking me out more often than I liked.  
"The daughter was given away at the same time as you were Leon - And you never knew about her"  
"So...who is the daughter?" I asked, softly.  
"Why don't you let her clone tell you?" the man said, and motioned one of the black clad soldiers to step forwards.  
The soldier put down her rifle, and then released the catches of her mask. She pulled away the mask that came away in one pull. Strands of brown hair fell in front of her face before she threw her hair back from her face.  
Oh my god.  
It was...it couldn't be...  
"Meet JL - Or if you want to call her by this name...Jill Valentine"  
We all gasped. Jill, the real one, was looking baffled and shocked at the same time.   
"It's nice to meet your originals" Jill's clone said, smiling at her own self with a look of contempt in her eyes, burning like night fires.  
Jill...was...my twin? Knowing Sherry was my sister was difficult enough without having to deal with the knowledge that my twin sister was Jill Valentine, another person I'd only met a short time ago. Wait a second...If Chris was in love with Jill...who was my sister and therefore technically Claire's sister in law - That would make Chris...  
Oh dear.  
The rain soaking Jill's hair made her look like something the cat dragged in, and she looked as miserable as something that had been dragged in by a cat.  
"But...I never knew..." she muttered.  
"We never do" her copy said, contemptuously "Do we, JILL?"  
She practically spat out her name.  
"So...if you're the copy of me...who's LJ?" Jill asked, softly.  
On cue, LJ stepped forward, and clicked the release catches on his gas mask. He slowly took it off, light spilling onto his face as he withdrew it, storing it under his arm. He smiled at me.  
My jaw dropped.  
It's not very often you come face to face with somebody who looks identical to you in every single respect.  
LJ....was....me?  
"My god" Claire breathed "You're-"  
My double laughed softly.  
"Right. I'm your husband's clone - Perfect in every single respect, huh, Jill?" he was talking to his Jill, the cloned Jill.  
"Mmm...of course" she said as he took her up in his arms, both of them looking at each other with that sort of stare that would be fine with courting couples but just plain nauseating with brother and sister.   
I seriously wanted to vomit.  
When he kissed her I nearly threw up.  
"Uh...Do you mind if I puke here or do you want to step closer so I can puke on you?" I asked, with distaste in my voice. They turned to me slowly, eyes cold and angry.  
"All we've got is each other - You could at least be nice about the fact we have no parents"  
My copy glared at me - I could literally feel the flames he was directing at me. He really was angry with me. Why?   
I...just didn't know...but somehow, I just dreaded that he'd make me realise why.   
"The biggest problem with the world today" Jill's clone said "Is that so many people are very selfish - Don't you think so?"  
I stared at her, dumbfounded.  
"What... do you mean?" I asked slowly, as if I was talking to children.  
She looked at me.  
"I'm saying that all some of us have is each other - We haven't been able to all enjoy happy, playful childhoods neither have we all had friends or those to look after us"  
"And I guess that you're one of those children?" Chris asked.  
"WE" Jill's clone corrected "Me and my brother, here"  
"What makes you think that you're so special?" Claire asked.  
"How many clones are better than their originals?" my replica replied, a little maliciously "Stronger, less prone to the wrong types of emotion - superior in every way"  
As well as being insulted and dumbfounded, I was also angry at being described as inferior to an evil version of myself. However, there was also something inside me that had been growing for a few minutes as my doppelganger had talked.  
A great feeling of...was it sadness? Betrayal?  
Whatever it was, it permeated my being - And for some reason I was trying to hold back tears.   
"Whassamatter?" my clone asked me in a mockingly sad tone of voice "Feel...unhappy?"  
"Why are you doing this to us?" I croaked.  
"If you want to know - I'll tell you in a minute"  
The two suited men who had remained silent for quite a while now stepped forwards, and the second man was the one who spoke next.  
"Alright! If you wish to interrogate any prisoners do so in a few minutes. Now, Mr. Chris Redfield too has something to be told"  
We all turned to look at Chris, who looked baffled.  
"I don't know what you're talking about" he said.  
"You won't" my clone said, grinning.  
"I just feel that Mr. Untouched here who is the all-American boy may get a little stunned when he discovers who he really is"  
"And you know who I really am?" Chris said, eyebrow raised.  
"How about knowing that it all began with a clone"   
"Are we surprised?"   
"There was another clone, who had nothing to do with Leon and his twin sister. The resulting person was used as a mindless assassin, a man who'd kill without remorse or pity"  
"So why...aren't there any of those around?" Chris asked.  
"Because they were fallible - They could develop emotion, and many rebelled - So we either terminated them or blended them into society with full identities"  
You could almost feel the build up. Somehow, I knew what was coming. I was a mental wreck, I was nearly screaming for my world to be fake, for everything to be a dream. But the rai nwas so real, the man's tones so crisp that I knew it could not be, as I wanted it to be, a dream.  
"This particular clone was, at a youngish age, put into the care of a prominent army officer - Whose name was Colonel Samuel Redfield"   
Claire gaped.  
"That's my dad!"  
"Precisely" one of the men grinned an evil grin.  
Chris looked up at him, his face filled with fear and dread.  
"No..." he whispered, in that voice that Luke Skywalker had used on Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes back - but this time for real "...That's not true!!"  
"Do I have to say it again?!" the man snapped "You were an assassin for Umbrella!"  
Chris's lip quavered, his eyes wide and scared - but then he hung his ehad, accepting his past.  
I heard a sob. It was from Claire.  
"How...how come I don't remember anything?" she asked, voice quavering.   
"We changed your memories - We could quite easily remove and put in new memories...Your father agreed that you couldn't just accept a new brother, so he let us change your memories, to allow him a special place in your heart" the first man's voice was almost sympathetic.  
"I...I'm a single child..." Claire whispered, tears streaming down her face. I felt the same. We all felt betrayed, chewed up and spat out.  
"What about Rebecca?" Chris asked "Is she...normal?"  
"I'm afraid not - She was the daughter of Dr. Scott Kennedy after all"  
I was no longer surprised. I did feel as if somebody had been slicing up my heart throughout the entire conversation, savagely, and with a fire-axe.   
"You mean - She'd my foster-father's real daughter? Why did he let her go?" I asked, softly.  
"He didn't want to - He never met her. She became her mother's daughter - who was divorced from Kennedy and then re-married a gentleman called Jack Chambers - And that is really it. We kept her away to separate her from Birkin's real son and any others, and so we all kept you apart - But here you are together again"  
"Like a family reunion, huh?" Jill's clone said, cocking her head at an angle.  
I exchanged a look with my twin sister, and then my little sister. Sherry was crying too.   
I turned away, unable to watch.  
"Story time's over, kiddies" my clone said "Guards! Take all of them, apart from Jill and Leon whom I want in that empty storehouse for a while - My sister and I have some unfinished business"   
He glared at me - eyes alight. I didn't like what they had in mind.  
"Take the others to the temporary prison level on the upper floor of the main building - Keep them under constant watch"  
One of the other soldiers nodded, and seven soldiers came and grabbed Sherry, Claire and Chris, who was a broken man.   
They were dragged off, and I turned to see them go - but I felt my clone grab my collar and drag me towards the warehouse.  
"You're coming with me you little bastard" he hissed.  
I heard Jill cry out, and I turned to see her clone holding her by the throat, and dragging her not far behind me, her face a picture of sickening sadistic pleasure.   
  
Do you know what pain feels like?  
  
  
I was thrown face first into the floor, I was just able to prevent the ground from breaking my nose as I brought my hands in front of me to shield myself from the drop.   
I clawed the floor and cried out as my other self kicked me hard in the back. God, it hurt. Soon I was moaning in pain, and I knew I couldn't do anything about it.  
Angry, tired and hurt I was in no fit state to fight. I looked blearily up at my clone, who looked down on me with a face twisted with malevolence.   
"LEON!" Jill, my sister cried.  
I just knew that she was being kicked.  
"Your sister's being given the same treatment as you, huh?" my clone said, nastily.  
"She...hasn't...done...anything..." I replied, wincing with each word.  
He looked at me with a quizzical lopsided expression.  
"Really?"  
I gazed into his eyes.  
I tried to pinpoint what he was getting at.  
Wait a second...I'd seen that emotion before...It was with Ada...  
Jealousy. Jealousy? Why? What had I done that could ever make him jealous of me? I didn't have an enviable life. Far from it.  
"What have we done wrong?" I asked matter-of-factly, but with a calm and cold manner that I was trying to make sound threatening.  
He wasn't moved, but he did answer.  
"My sister and me..." he took her on his arm as we lay sprawled on the cold concrete at their feet "...were born together, we grew together and lived forever together - Everyday we were alone! Everyday we spent, never leaving each others sides as we were pushed through something like an education, trained as Umbrella soldiers...and my sister, my love, was all I had"  
"Your sister is your love?" I asked, with distaste "Ugh..."  
I watched as my clone stroked his sister's cheek and kissed her on the neck, before drawing back to me, and nodded.  
"My only love. We never had anybody else to rely on. We were alone..." his voice faded.  
Then, Jill II, the other Jill took over.  
"We never had any parents like you did, we never had any friends like you did, we never had any relatives like you did, we weren't loved like you were...You had everything we didn't...now it's time for payback" she said the last words with venom in her voice.  
"So much pain...Ever since we've worked with Umbrella - We were the ones who helped release the virus in the mansion estate, we were the ones who chose to plant Albert Wesker, we were the ones who ordered the T-90 in to the Police Station to deal with you, we gave the order to steal the G-Virus whatever it took, we chose to kill off the STARS with the Nemesis, ands then send another after you on Angel Island, we chose to kidnap your children and lure you straight into hell - But every time you escaped. Well, guess what...you're going to suffer for everything you did and deserved..."  
I looked my sister in the eyes. She was terrified. So was I. I was a broken man, unable to take much more.  
"We've decided to give you a tour-de-force experience of precisely how we've felt - Fourteen years worth of it in literally a second"  
My other self grinned, evilly.  
"You're married, right?"  
I took offence at what he could have been suggesting.  
"TOUCH CLAIRE AND YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!!" I yelled, enraged.  
He shook his head, tutting.  
"It's got nothing to do with her - I just wanted to make sure your wedding ring was on the right hand"  
I frowned at him.  
"What the hell are you talking about?"  
"It would be a pity for you to lose it"  
I almost laughed at him. I was bemused by his threat.  
I smiled.  
"Think it's funny?!" Jill II snapped "I'm sure you'll find it hysterical when you see what we've got in mind!"  
I suddenly felt my other self pin my left arm to the ground, and the other Jill hold my other arm down with her foot on my leg. I couldn't budge.  
"Leon!"   
Jill tried to strike her clone across the head, but her clone grabbed her and in one movement threw her to the ground beside me.  
"Watch..." she hissed "Watch your brother..."  
I saw Leon II remove something from his belt...a wickedly sharp but still quite thick hunting knife.  
What the...?   
Suddenly I knew what he had in mind. I panicked, started to thrash around, tried to scream but Jill II roughly placed a hand on my mouth as she held my sister's throat at the same time.  
"Here it comes!" my clone said with a sadistic delight. I felt him wedge open my fingers, and tuck my little finger and my middle finger underneath my hand.   
I saw him raise the knife, and he caught my eye. For a moment, I stared at him fearfully, desperately trying to convince him that he was doing the wrong thing.  
But he didn't care.  
He brought the knife down.  
Jill said later on that she heard a clean crack and a slight fleshy sound, accompanied by a metal shriek as the knife hit the ground.  
But I wouldn't have heard it.  
I was too busy screaming.   
As if it had been building up like the pressure inside of a shaken beer can, pain exploded out of my body, the agony making stars appear in front of my eyes as I cried out in anguish.  
He let go of my arm, and I rolled onto my side, clutching my bleeding hand.  
I slowly raised it up in front of my eyes. I tears poured from my eyes in the sheer pain and shock of seeing my mutilated hand. For my left hand now only had four fingers. Where the ring finger had been was just a bloody stump, where scarlet blood flowed freely down my hand and onto my wrist. I held it under my armpit to put pressure on the stump, in the hope it would stop bleeding soon.   
I turned, in my suffering, to see Jill being pinned down too. Wincing and moaning in pain, I staggered over to kick my clone hard in the head.  
This pain was more than I'd ever felt before. I'd felt pain. I'd had my leg broken by a Nemesis, I'd been shot for gods sakes. But this hurt more than any pain. It was the pain of betrayal, the pain of knowing that the man who had mutilated me in this way was of my flesh and blood...  
Jill's scream filled the air as the twisted psychopath that was my clone and his sister gave Jill the same treatment.  
I yelled out in anger.  
By now, I had to do something. Even in my pain, I grabbed the pistol in my clone's belt, and pointed it at his head.  
"Freeze you bastard...you bastard..." I nearly broke down as he turned towards me, Jill still writhing on the floor in agony.  
"You...bastard...cut my frigging finger...off you...bastard..." I was nearly crying again.  
"Come now Leon" my clone said, coldly "You wouldn't want to do that - Especially since we've got a medical kit to seal up your wounds. We wanted you to suffer, not to die"  
My pistol hand was shaking.  
"Leave...Jill...alone..." I said.  
My clone shrugged, and nodded to his 'love'.  
She hoisted Jill up, and pushed her into my arms. Jill was crying.  
"My...finger..." she moaned, tearfully.   
"Put the gun down and not only will we tend to your wounds, but we'll give you back to your friends too!" My clone smiled.  
I was in no position to argue. I just wanted my sister to be safe. I threw the gun down, which my clone picked up. Then, he pulled out a small container from his sidepack. It looked like a complicated battery recharger, but with a small tank of something built into it - and he took my finger, and dropped it inside the container, which he sealed shut with a hiss of gas.  
"I'm preserving it" he explained, and then Jill II pulled out her medical kit "Now why don't you sit down and let us deal with those very nasty wounds of yours"  
I glared at him. Even as Jill's clone cleaned up and bandaged my stump of a finger tightly. Even as Jill II was able to stop the bleeding and prevent me from bleeding to death, I gritted my teeth.   
He would pay. For my finger, Jill's, and my life that he'd so carefully tried to wreck with Umbrella. Oh yes. He would definitely pay.  
  
We were taken to the Master HQ soon afterwards. I couldn't concentrate on exactly where I was going, so wrapped up in my own pain and nausea - I was aware of a door being unlocked, and then opening, and that I was thrown in, followed by Jill.  
The room we were in looked like a disused medical bay - It had some beds, seats and tables. It was in here the others were. Chris was sitting at a table, head in his hands. I couldn't see his face. I didn't want to see his anger, to see his despair and embarrassment. Two guards in the room raised their rifles threateningly.  
I saw Claire leap upwards, and she ran towards me, hugging me.  
"Thank god you're alive...we thought that you were dead..."  
I smiled at her weakly, but I winced.  
"What's the matter?" she asked, confused.   
Oh yeah - She couldn't see my finger.  
"Don't worry - It's not that much to worry about" I said, weakly.  
Claire pulled my hand from underneath my armpit. She saw the reddish bandaged stump, and her face contorted in shock and anger.  
"What the fu....what the..."  
"Took one of my fingers" I explained.  
"They...cut off your left ring-finger?!" she asked, in absolute shock.  
"Yeah" I muttered.  
She turned her face to look at my clone...who she regarded with, I could see, the kind of look that comes under the category 'absolute hatred'   
"You bastard..." I heard her say, very softly "You...cut off one of my husbands fingers..."  
"Well, at least his wedding ring's still on his right hand" Leon II said, cheerfully.  
Then, the door slammed behind us, and my clone and his sister were gone.  
I fell onto the bed.  
"That hurt...so much..." I muttered.  
Jill sat down beside me, her face unsmiling.  
She raised up her own bandaged hand.  
"Why...?" she asked "Why did they do this?"  
"Because they're freaks..." I replied.  
I turned to look at her.  
"You know...I didn't know you were my twin sister...I didn't...It's just taken a while for it to sink in..."  
She smiled at me, weakly.  
"And here's me thinking I was always an only child" she whispered.  
I embraced her, she fell against me, crying into my shoulder.   
Emotion.  
Sadness.  
Joy.  
Fear.  
I felt her tears soak my shirt, and I stroked her hair, trying to soothe her.  
When she sat up again, she wiped the tears from her eyes.  
"Sorry about that...I just..."  
She suddenly seemed to remember something, and she snapped her head around to look at Claire, who'd been standing back, allowing us to have a brother-sister moment.  
"Where's Chris?"   
Claire pointed towards her supposed brother in the corner, who looked like a discarded string puppet, sagging as if he bore the world on his shoulders.  
"Chris..." I hear her whisper "...Please listen to me"  
He looked up, face torn apart with emotion.  
"Jill..." he croaked "...I'm not who you thought I was"  
"Yes you are" she said.  
"No...I'm an ex-assassin, somebody who killed men and women without mercy - I mean, god knows how long my hit list is!!"  
"No" Jill said firmly "You're a good man with morals, a man who fights the good fight"  
"Forget about me..." Chris said, bowing his head "Please, just forget you ever knew me...I could feel better that way"  
"NO!"   
The tone of Jill's voice was so sharp it made all of us step back.  
"You are a man who is loved! By his sister, by his friends..." she licked her lips "...And by me"  
He looked up at her, confused.  
"I have always loved you, Chris" she said, softly "Sometimes...It's so strong I feel I just can't take it"  
He looked at her, eyes clear and knowing.  
Please, go for it Chris, go for it...  
He stood up, and put his arms around her waist.  
"Jill...I've always loved you too...I..."  
"Don't say anything else" Jill replied "I know what you're going to say"  
"Will you hurry up and kiss already?" I said, almost grinning.  
Jill smiled at me.  
"The pleasure's all mine" she said, and kissed Chris full on the mouth.  
  
It was probably ten minutes before we finally breathed out again. Sherry was tapping her watch as she watched the couple enjoying their...moment.  
"Is it possible for two people to breathe for that long?" she asked.  
"I don't know" Claire said, and turned to me "But I bet I can break the record!" she grinned.  
I rolled my eyes.  
  
When the whole thing had finally stopped, the four adults in the room who had been kissing (including me) were red, panting and grinning.  
Sherry looked at us, bemused.  
"Well if you've all quite finished" she said "I think we'd better think about escape"  
I turned around to see one of our two guards enter the room, and I looked at Chris. He winked. I winked back.  
The single wink basically said Take 'em down.  
We didn't have any weapons - But I decided to play it cool. I casually sauntered up to one of the guards, who raised his gun, protectively.  
"Uh...who goes there...Uh...I mean...halt...Friend or foe..."  
He was obviously nervous at guarding several very dangerous people enter the room. He obviously wasn't too smart either.  
"Which would you prefer?" I asked, smiling.  
He gave me a strange look.   
I brought up my knee as hard as I could into his groin.  
"GAH!" he exclaimed as he toppled onto his knees, at which point both Claire and Chris whacked him over the head with the heavy wooden chairs.  
I grabbed the MP5 he carried, and nodded to Chris.  
"Lure the next one in" I said.  
"Leave it to me" Jill said, grinning.   
She stepped out into the corridor. Then, in her sexiest voice:  
"Oh guard? My bra-strap's a bit loose...could you come and help me?"   
It was, to any man apart from me who was her brother, an irresistible invitation.  
As soon as the inanely grinning man stepped through the doorway, My gun was at his head.  
"Now listen to me" I hissed "Put down your gun, ammo and any knives which you may have on you and then get down on your knees with your hands up"  
The man's mood had changed remarkably quickly, becoming terrified in the single moment I pressed the barrel to his temple.   
He obeyed, pulling off his weapon, and throwing his extra ammo clips to the floor. I took two out of the four of them, and Chris picked up his weapon and extra ammo.  
We all stepped out of the door, and slammed it behind us, and with a click it was locked.  
"Yeah!" Sherry exclaimed joyfully "We're out!"  
  
Thine be the Glory  
  
We had fifteen minutes.  
We knew this now, with all the time we'd spent locked up or being tortured, we now had very little time until eight T-Virus laden rockets would impact on eight of the world's major cities.   
Fifteen minutes between life and death.  
Bringing two guards around the corner and then scavenging their weapons for the ladies to use wasn't hard - What was hard would be getting upstairs knowing that we had to  
a) Disarm eight missiles, and then b) Probably facing Leon II & Jill II once we got up there.  
As we took the stairs up, boots clattering on the concrete tiled floor, I wondered where Hunk had gone.  
None of us really knew either.   
"Uh, Claire?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Where's Hunk?"  
She looked at me as we took each flight of steps up, and wrinkled an eyebrow.  
"I...don't know!" she turned to Chris "Chris! Where's Hunk?"  
"I don't know!" he replied "Why do you want to know?"  
"Just want to know where he is!" I called as we ran up each set up steps.  
Three guards stood above us. They looked at us - and did a double take.  
Four bullets slammed into the chest of the first man before he could even pull out his weapon, and two shots from Claire's gun that thudded into his throat and forehead, sending him toppling backwards.  
"Funny" Jill said "Where's the rest of the garrison?"  
The answer came from outside. There was a sudden burst of gunfire, a mixture of screams and growls that made my blood freeze. We ran to the nearest window, and yanking open the blind we looked out into the main courtyard, where we had been not so long ago.   
It was crawling with Umbrella guards...and hunters. There were lots of them, and the soldiers were rapidly being torn to shreds as they sent their gunfire into the mass of creatures. Where they'd come from I wasn't sure. It certainly didn't matter either.  
"We've got to get to the main control room" I said "If we don't - BANG! There goes the world"  
"I heard one of the troops talking about an evacuation via helicopter, and he said it was on the roof of this building - It's big enough"  
That was Sherry.  
"At least we've got an escape route" Claire said "But we'd better go anyway"  
We were now running full speed up the stairs, sprinting up the steps as if the pot of gold was at the top.   
  
The control room had seven people in it when we quietly snuck in, hiding behind the consoles nearest to the walls as we peeked over to look at the seven people. It was my clone, Jill's clone and the two suited men, whom we now knew to be Frasier and Watts (in that order) according to their security passes, which lay strewn on the floor. Like bait. I had no intention of touching the cards yet. The other three were two armed guards...and Agent Hunk. Hunk was standing there, half like a prisoner and half like a soldier. He was watching Frasier and Watts carefully.  
"Not long now Tom" Frasier, or the first suited man, said eagerly.  
"Not long at all" Watts replied   
"Do you think this venture of ours will make us rich, or d'you think that Umbrella might try to bargain?"  
"I'm not sure - But I don't doubt they'll be sneaky with us"  
"Sir" my clone said "There is a danger - I don't doubt that my original will try to escape, and that he's after our blood"  
"That's a risk we will have to take" Frasier snapped "Why were you so rough with him anyway?! His dear sister isn't exactly too pleased with her own torture either!"  
"I'm sorry sir" my clone tightened his fist "But...It was personal"   
"No shit" I said, standing up with the others raising their own weapons on the crowd.  
They all turned to look at us, my clone surprised but not moved, Watts and Frasier taking a step back and the two armed men levelling their weapons.  
"So..." Watts said "You're here - Well I might as well say now that you're too late, nearly ten minutes until we launch the missiles. You're out of time. It's over"  
"It ain't over until the fat lady sings" I said "And she hasn't sung yet"  
"And even if you do stop the missiles - The Nuclear warhead due to hit the town in twenty-minutes will end your little rebellion"  
I narrowed my eyes.  
"I thought it was going to hit at 0510"  
"Sorry - Management decision at the last minute took the timer back by nearly half an hour. It's going to end much sooner than you think"  
"True" Chris said "For you"  
"Well excuse me, but I think that the assassin wants to have a word!" Watts said, bemused.  
"It's what I was, but not what I am now - So why don't you just be nice and hand over your disarming key for each missile, huh?"  
We all stepped forward into the area on the floor that doubled for our stalemate position.   
"Somehow, I don't think so"  
Weapons pointed at each other. Four weapons on each side.   
Stalemate.  
"Well, now it's up to you Hunk" Frasier said, turning to Hunk "Which side do you choose?"   
He threw a gun, which Hunk caught.  
"Us or them. It's quite simple. Choose now"  
Hunk stood there for a moment, looking at the semi-automatic pistol.  
I took a deep breath.  
Choose Hunk. Choose.  
"Leon" he said, pulling the gun up towards me "It was great being with you and the others" then he smiled. It wasn't a disheartening smile. Somehow...I could see...  
"But like Mr. Watts here said..." he continued, and then after a sustained pause "It's over, isn't it?"  
He suddenly spun around and unleashed four bullets into one of his guards, throwing himself to one side as Leon II & Jill II opened fire on him. At this point, Chris pulled the trigger on the other guard, the barrel spitting fire as several bullets tore into the man's body as if he was a rag doll, screaming out as his body jerked before falling to the floor.   
Watts and Frasier cowered back as we exchanged fire with my clone and his sister, bullets tearing holes in the wall and floors as we continued to fill the air with deafening gunfire.  
Somehow, Watts got in the way, and as he stood, dumbfounded and worried, seven bullets tore into his suited back, and he fell to the floor, silently.  
When the gunfire stopped, me, Claire, Chris, Jill and Hunk stood, guns pointed at Leon II and Jill II. Sherry was hiding behind a console, and Frasier cowered against a computer.  
"Okay..." Leon II said, threateningly "...There's a story here, and there can only be one ending...which is to be for our heroes? A gallant death, or a death-defying escape?"   
"I prefer the latter" I replied.  
"Not if I have my way" my clone stepped forwards so far that he was standing right in front of my face. It was like a reflection.  
He pressed his MP5 against me. Mine was hanging by its strap.  
In my pocket...the knife...god my hand hurt...  
He smiled.  
"I think this is where you face the curtain and bow"  
Got a grip...yes...Now bring it out slowly...  
"I don't think so" I said, smiling.  
"What makes you think that?"  
"I'm the one with the knife" I said, simply.  
He looked at me, confused. With as much force as I could muster, I thrust the blade as hard as I could into his chest.  
His face froze with shock. Then blood trickled out of his mouth...and he staggered backwards, clutching his bleeding chest, blood flowing out over his hands.  
Jill II screamed in despair, and fell down to help her stricken partner.  
"Leon! My love...please, don't leave me!" I heard her moan. We stepped closer.  
"Look after it..." Leon II whispered, breaths growing more and more ragged as he slowly died.  
"No...we can escape together..."  
"We won't..." my other self touched his sister (lover?) on the cheek "So beautiful...bring me back..."  
"Yes" she replied, softly. He handed her the container, plus a small silvery disk that she pocketed.  
Then, she hugged him. Then, she said a few words that nearly made me pass out.   
"Your child is inside me" she whispered.  
Yuck...  
Then, with one last gasp, my clone lay back, and his head rolled to one side.  
Jill II cried. We didn't move. Didn't react. Didn't feel any emotion.  
Then, she stood up, eyes burning with rage, and raised her weapon.  
"I'm going...I would kill you...but I can wait...maybe years but believe me I can wait..." she said, voice rigid with anger. Then she ran out of the room, to another exit. It was labelled ROOF.  
A stairway to the roof!  
A way out...  
The missiles! In the heat of the confrontation I'd almost forgotten about them.  
I turned to Frasier, who was trying to crawl away. I grabbed him and hauled him up.  
"Right - We'll ask you again. Give us the disarming key"  
"Okay...okay..." the man gurgled, sticking his hand in his pocket, before pulling out a metal key on a chain, which Chris took.  
"There's more..." the man said "...If you let me go, I'll tell you"  
I dropped him, and he straightened his collar.  
"You have to use a key-card to arm the mechanism that burns and consumes the T-Virus, which I have here. It takes twenty seconds for the entire process to take place - Then you have to verify the various tasks and go through the computer processes - which you can do first, optionally" he looked at his watch "And with less than fives minutes now, you've got a big task on your hands"  
"Gives us the key-card" I said.  
He nodded quickly, knowing that he had four MP5's and one semi-automatic pistol pointing at him, and he gave me the card.  
"Now get out of here" Jill said, coldly.  
The man ran to the nearest wall...and stood there.  
"Standing there for a reason?" Claire asked him.   
"Just...want to see if you do it, that's all" he stammered.  
Soon, we were all in action.  
Eight TV monitors on the wall showed the non-active cameras that were perched on the missiles. All were blank.  
I started on the first one, assisted by Claire.  
It took a full minute for it to verify.  
Chris had taken the key, and was busy unlocking the other missile controls, all built into the front consoles in front of an enormous screen. It wasn't long before we were all hard at the job.  
In six minutes, we had four missiles offline and with the T-Virus burned up and useless.  
We should have watched Frasier.  
We should have turned to see him creep behind one of the consoles and then thump the LAUNCH buttons for all of the working missiles.  
Sherry turned around just as he pressed the buttons.  
"NO!" she yelled.  
We all spun around to see Frasier grinning.  
"Too late" he said "I've launched the missiles. God help you, because nobody else will!" he cried, almost triumphantly.  
"Screw you!!" Claire yelled.  
Then there was a deep rumble.  
"I think" Hunk said "That we're in deep shit"  
There was a deafening roar, and then a flash of fiery light from the windows as the remaining four missiles rose slowly, on a cloud of fire, and then picking up speed, soared up into the early morning sky as we stared out onto the missile silos, smoking and burning in the twilight.  
"MOVE FASTER!!" I yelled, and soon we were hurriedly thumping switches and bringing them offline.   
But the missiles were like speeding bullets. One was destined for impact on LA in two minutes.  
London missile offline...  
I was tired. We were all tired. But we had to save the human race, save the world.  
Tokyo missile offline...Washington missile offline...  
Please, hear my prayer...  
Thirty seconds...  
Error message  
Twenty seconds...  
PLEASE!!!  
BEEP.  
I heard a whoop of joy from Hunk as the final missile came offline.   
We all cheered. We'd done it! We'd saved the world...it was over.  
Except it wasn't.  
Ten minutes until a nuclear missile took Burkitt.  
We had to go.  
"Come on!! To the helipad!!" Chris yelled, and we all ran after him, giddy like school children, and ran up the steps, slamming the door behind us - And as we ran, I heard the pathetic cries of Frasier behind us as he slammed his weight against the door.  
You don't deserve to live. Perish, Frasier.  
We ran out into the early morning, the rain had stopped, and all we had was a cool wind blowing into our faces.  
So fresh...so new...  
There were three helicopters standing there...presumably for the other members of the White Umbrella board...who happened to still be in the base!  
I almost grinned.  
Thine be the Glory, thine be the frigging glory...  
  
Never give up the Escape  
  
We climbed aboard, I fell into a soft seat as Chris began to prepare the helicopter for take off.  
"NOT LONG NOW!!" Claire yelled above the sound of the thumping blades.  
There was a sudden jolt, as Chris brought the helicopter slowly off the concrete roof, and I looked down as the ground disappeared beneath us.  
Then, it was gone completely as we sped away, over the ruined town, over the burning buildings, the rampaging zombies, the lost, the good, the bad, the quick and the dead.   
I didn't feel anything as I looked out of the open door, and then as suddenly as the city was there, it suddenly slipped off into the mountains as we sped away.  
"IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NOW!!!" Jill yelled above the roar of air.  
Suddenly, there was a burst of blinding white light. We all closed our eyes simultaneously, and looking out of the door as the light faded slightly, I saw an immense mushroom cloud rising from the centre of the city.   
BOOM...  
Fire tore through every single building in Burkitt, the fiery mushroom cloud thundering across the ground...  
But I didn't want to look anymore.  
I turned my back on the town.  
That was the last I ever saw of Burkitt.  
I closed the door.  
I turned to Hunk.  
"What made you decide to join us?"  
He looked at me, and smiled.  
"I decided I wanted you to have a family life"  
I laughed, softly.  
So did Claire.  
"Although I'm afraid I won't be joining you - If you could drop me off somewhere near here, I'd be grateful"  
We all looked on solemnly.  
"So...you're going home?"  
"Yeah" he replied, smiling "I've sort of quit Umbrella - I thought I might develop some morals"  
He grinned.   
I rolled my eyes, and shook my head.  
"Think any good jobs will come your way?"  
"There's always one" he replied, nodding "There's always one"  
I looked at the others. I suddenly felt movement at my side. Sherry was asleep on my arm. I took her hand, tenderly. I had a life to look forward to. A family. My children, in Rebecca's care, were waiting for Claire and me. A family life.  
My new sister smiled at me from across the small passenger space.  
Then, she closed her eyes, and leaned on Chris's shoulder. Chris smiled.   
I leaned back. White Umbrella was destroyed.  
I didn't doubt that Jill's clone would come back - But not now...not for now...  
I held my wife, and smiled at her as we leaned against each other, and fell asleep.  
Soon I was lost in dreams. Good dreams. Dreams of victory and peace.  
At last...  
I could sleep.  
  
We dropped off Hunk a few hours later, by the side of a deserted road.  
We stood outside of the helicopter on the grass by the road, and looked on Hunk as he prepared to hotwire an abandoned car. It was working. It was a little battered, and paint had been scraped off it...but he didn't seem to care.  
He stood up, and walked up to me.   
"So...this is where we go our separate ways"  
"Yeah" I said, and put out my hand "It's been a good one"  
He smiled, and shook my hand, firmly.   
Then, he went down the line, shaking hands.  
"Sorry about that" Chris said, shaking Hunk's hand "I know I was a little hostile..."  
"Don't worry" Hunk replied, waving his hand, dismissing the subject.   
He was about to walk to the car, then he turned back.  
"Hey...you might as well have one of these"  
He threw me something, wrapped in paper.  
Confused, I unwrapped it. Inside was a card. It looked like a credit card.  
"There's about five million in that account" Hunk said, grinning "The pin number's written on the paper, and all you've got to do is register it under your name...I guess our friend Watts was readying an account for his retirement fund. See you all. Take care"  
I looked at the numbers.   
"What do you mean one of-"   
The car engine roared, and as I tried to ask him the question, the car steered onto the road, and shot off down the tarmac strip into the distance.  
That was the last time I ever saw Agent Hunk.   
"We've got something to look forward to" Claire whispered, hugging me. I hugged her back "A life. A family life. One with jobs, taxes, schools, Christmases, holidays...everything..." she smiled at me, and I kissed her on the lips.  
"We got a new life" I said "Now White Umbrella's records of us are all but destroyed - They haven't got anybody to order them around now. We've come out on top"  
I held her there.   
The sun was coming up over the horizon, and golden light played on Claire Kennedy, formerly Claire Redfield as I looked into her eyes. The sun reflected off her beautiful eyes.  
"You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen" I said, softly.  
She smiled.  
"Ditto" she replied, indicating me.  
I kissed her.  
As the sun rose up, two couples enjoyed the early morning. Sherry held onto Claire and me as Chris and Jill embraced.  
Two couples and one girl enjoying their new lives.  
We couldn't wait.  
  
EPILOGUE  
  
Right here, right now  
  
I'm writing this as we speak.  
I'm looking out of the window onto the glistening pool in our back garden, which I can see from the study.  
How long is it? Maybe four months since then?  
I can see Claire with Steve and Ada dabbling their feet in the pool, faces pictures of happiness.   
Sherry is splashing in the pool, laughing as she splashes waves onto the slabs beside the waters edge.  
I'm loving every minute of it. An ordinary family life, would you believe. I'm waiting another couple of months before I try to get another job - I think I deserve a break. It's rather difficult to evaluate all my adventures, beginning with my entrance into Raccoon City and climaxing with my escape from Burkitt. It's been interesting, certainly. Scary, to say the least. It's hardly been fun, and it's been far from exhilarating. Exciting certainly isn't a word I'd use right at this moment. In a way, I'm glad I went through it all - I earned myself a wife, two sisters and two children. My other sister is a couple of blocks away with her husband - Yes, Chris and Jill are married too.  
We've all got enough money to last us for a while. What about the others? Barry's gone back to his family, and Rebecca's living in the neighbourhood too. Waiting for a boyfriend.  
I'm waiting too. What for, I don't know. But neither do I care. What I do know is, with some relish, is that the world doesn't need me anymore. The world doesn't need Leon S. Kennedy.   
I enjoy filling out my credit forms. I enjoy spending time with my family. I love it all. Finally, I can sit back and know that I can live an ordinary existence, just like you as you're reading this.  
Claire's calling to me now, as is Sherry. 'Come on Leon!' they're saying 'Come into the pool!'  
I'm joining them now.  
I suppose you could read all of this, right here, right now and wonder what the hell I'm talking about.  
But don't worry.  
You'll get it.  
Someday.   
  
THE END  
  
  
Authors note: Well, that's the end of The Umbrella Chronicles! Any comments and reviews can be filed to the review section of course!   
I think I may give you a brief history of my fan-fiction trilogy. I started writing Episode 1: Island of Angels (Also on the site) in early 2000. As I write this, It's January 5th 2001. It's taken me a year to write. A whole year I devoted to writing 70+ page stories: Altogether, the page count is some thing in the region of 210 or something like that.   
I first submitted Episode 1 to a Resident Evil website, the Homepage of Resident Evil (which is great, but it's down at the moment) and it got on it, to my delight. I wrote Episode 2, which took somewhat less time I was surprise to find out. I was approximately forty pages into Episode 2 when I discovered Fanfiction.net, registered an account and posted my stories. Thanks to really supportive and fantastic people, I kept writing to the bitter end. Other Resident Evil sites have either been touchy or have rejected my stories in their Fan-fiction sections. And I don't really care anymore. I've got fanfiction.net!   
As for the future, there is a follow up to the Umbrella Chronicles, another trilogy which I am starting to plan as we speak. It will take a while, and it's really only a few ideas at the moment, it will be coming! In the meantime, I may knock out some further RE and more Final Fantasy stories, two of which I have (BASEket Fantasy parts 1 & 2) in the Final Fantasy VIII section if you want to take a look, since they are part of my rare ventures into humour!   
Stay tuned!  
See ya!!   
  
-MARK 'MANIX' ODELL  
  



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